Sewell's Science

In this episode of Sewell’s Science we make a glowing liquid.

 

To do this you will need:

Bottle or container to hold the liquid

Some highlighters

Plain paper

Water

Tools to break apart the highlighter

Sharp blade

And a black light

 

The most basic way of explaining why some things glow is, when you shine a black light on then you are putting energy in and “exiting” the particles. This energy is then given off again in the form of light.

 

There are 2 important definitions to think about when talking about “glowing stuff”, Fluorescence and phosphorescence.

 

Fluorescence and phosphorescence are spontaneous emissions of electromagnetic radiation. The difference is that the glow from fluorescence stops as soon as the source of excitatory radiation is removed. But in phosphorescence there is an afterglow (it keeps glowing for a bit after the source is taken away) this can last from a few seconds up to several hours.

 

If you want a more in-depth explanation of this then please, contact us or visit the chemistyviews.org website.

 

And remember don’t try this at home try it at a friends home!