The Cool Blue Light of Luminol

[2shin7]

Hi gusgus1229

Well I according to my research's, the iron is a catalyst of Luminol. Meaning Luminol is attracted to Iron.

Sincerely,
2shin7

[tdaly]

Hi 2shin7,

Your research is correct: iron is one of the cations that acts as a catalyst for the luminol reaction. What that means is that iron (or copper) speeds up the luminol reaction without being consumed. This makes it so that photons are emitted rapidly enough by the reaction so that we can see it.

[2shin7]

Hi Terik!

Well do you think that my partner and I can do some experiments with our topic and hypothesis?

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tdaly]

Hi 2shin7,

Yes, I definitely think you and your partner can do some experiments to test your hypothesis, using some of the information I've provided in earlier posts.

[2shin7]

HELLO Terik!

I have another question, is our experiment restricted??

Sincerely,
Shin

[tdaly]

Hi Shin,
Can you please clarify what you mean by "restricted"?

[2shin7]

Hi Terik,

By restricted I meant does it need to have an expert guiding us or no? like do we need forensic experts or chemists to be with us when we do our experiments?

[tdaly]

Hi Shin,

The best thing to do is to talk with your teacher about the rules for your particular science fair. Generally speaking, I would not expect that you would need to have a qualified scientist with you when you do your experiments. However, since rules vary from fair to fair, you should check with your teacher about what the rules are for your particular science fair.

[2shin7]

Hello Terik,

How can we use different amounts to prove that there is a difference?? Cause last Sunday we did some experiments and it didn't show much glow. Are we doing something wrong??

THANKSSSSS

Sincerely,
Shin

[tdaly]

Hi Shin,

Will you please post a detailed procedure for what you have been doing, including the amounts of all chemical you have been using? Without knowing your detailed procedure, it's difficult for me to assess why what you are doing isn't giving you the results you expect.

[2shin7]

Hello Terik

Our procedure is:
1. Set out materials and put on latex gloves
2. Set out five plastic cups in a row
3. Take the first cup, copper sulfate, luminol, hydrogen peroxide, measuring cups and camera into the dark room with lights on.
4. Pour 2 tsp. of copper sulfate into cup
5. Pour 3 tsp. of luminol into cup
6. have camera ready and light switch ready, and pour 3 tsp. of hydrogen peroxide into cup
7. Turn off the lights and wait for glow
8. Take pictures of the luminescence
9. Repeat steps 3-8 for cups ,3,4 & 5 but add 4 tsp, 6 tsp, 8 tsp, and 10 tsp
10. Compare luminescent result and the pictures taken
11. Analyze data and draw conclusion

If you need anything else please let me know.

Sincerely,
Shin

P.S. Thanks so much!

[tdaly]

Hi Shin,

Did you get the "Cool Blue Light Experiment Kit"? The kit uses perborate as an oxidizer instead of hydrogen peroxide. If you did purchase the kit, did you do the recommended experiments described in the pamphlet that comes with the kit? Did those work?

Do you see any luminescence at all, even for a very short period of time? It looks like you are using rather large quantities of each chemical, and a high ratio of copper sulfate to luminol, which could make the reaction go to completion really quickly. (Notice that the procedure for this this Project Idea uses grains of copper sulfate).

If you still have materials left and you were able to see luminescence for brief period of time, I would try reducing the amount of copper sulfate that you add. Does that give you better results?

[2shin7]

Hi Terik

Instead of perborate we used Hydrogen Peroxide, do you think that the hydrogen peroxide is making it glow less?
How are we going to analyze our results using a data table with numbers? And yes we got the "Cool Blue Light Experiment Kit." We did a similar experiment from the pamphlet, experiment 5.

[tdaly]

Hi Shin,

You will get the best results if you use the chemical that came in the kit, so try using the perborate instead of hydrogen peroxide.

With regards to a data table, yes, you can compile your data and present it in a data table.

[2shin7]

Hi Terik

Do you think we will have enough perborate if we are doing the experiment in a higher scale? Or should we buy some more? cause we've spent more than 50 bucks for the copper sulfate and more luminol powder and the kit. Do you think that we can add a little hydrogen peroxide into perborate or will we explode if we do that??? (Sorry I'm trying to think big here!)

Sincerely,
Shin

P.S. Sorry about my exaggeration and also I might ask more questions because my partner and I haven't talked about our questions for you...

P.P.S. THANKS A BUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!