Making phosphor at home


Phosphor - a substance capable of converting the energy it absorbs into light radiation. The color of the glow can be different and depends on the light filter applied to the surface of the phosphor or its impurity. Photo phosphor is a powder that has the property of glowing in the dark after being exposed to natural or artificial light.
To make the phosphor we need pine concentrate and boric acid.



We need to buy not “pine extract” at the pharmacy, but “pine concentrate”, because it contains a bright yellow dye, tartrazine (E102). The top pair of blue balls in its molecule is a chromophore (capable of receiving and emitting light) group -N=N- of two nitrogen atoms connected by a double bond. This ability is due to the fact that the -N=N- fragment can be in two positions and the transition energy between them is absorbed/emitted in the form of light.

In addition, this group is connected on one side to a benzene ring of six carbon atoms, and on the other side to a nitrogen-carbon ring and another benzene ring.This chain is a kind of corridor in which electrons can “run”. The permissible energies of such a run and
determine the color of the radiation.

Despite the fact that we understand how the dye molecule works, it is not yet obvious how it forms a phosphor - a molecular photobattery - with boric acid. Do it yourself and experiment.


Pour (or pour if you bought liquid) pine concentrate into a glass.


Pour in a little water to create an aqueous solution of tartrazine.


Pour boric acid into a spoon


Wet with dye solution


Stir to wet all the acid.


Boil until it reaches this state. We pierce the resulting bubbles with something sharp to ensure good heating of the entire mixture.


Cool, add more dye solution and boil the melt again. You will get a homogeneous yellow substance.


This is a phosphor! Use flash on it:


You can grind it into powder and apply it somewhere, add it to other substances and even to water.
Melting boric acid with solutions of other dyes - rhodamine and paste from blue gel pens also produced a phosphor, but of much worse quality. The big disadvantage of this method of preparing phosphor is the very short glow duration.

Also this phosphor glows well in ultraviolet radiation.

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Comments (23)
  1. Micro
    #1 Micro Guests November 4, 2010 21:33
    1
    Where can I get boric acid?
  2. [)eNiS
    #2 [)eNiS Guests 8 November 2010 17:06
    0
    well, it seems to be used as fertilizer. so ask at fertilizer stores smile
  3. Grandfather
    #3 Grandfather Guests 19 November 2010 18:17
    3
    Ask for boric acid at PHARMACIES! And please note that it is NOT AN EXTRACT, but a CONCENTRATE!!! EVERYTHING IS WORKING! smile
  4. funnydan
    #4 funnydan Guests 30 October 2011 23:15
    0
    +1
  5. wefl
    #5 wefl Guests 6 January 2012 20:19
    0
    if for UV, you can buy a fluorescent marker
    pull out the rod, cut it, get the fabric from there and take a bottle from under the shampoo and fill it completely with water
    and then wet and squeeze until the fabric turns white
    P.S. It’s better to take a yellow-green marker in UV rays
    it looks like a green glowing radioactive liquid
  6. akanishi
    #6 akanishi Guests March 16, 2012 18:00
    0
    I tried it with pine concentrate (contains E122 dye) but it didn’t work: (does it have to be E102?
  7. qwerty
    #7 qwerty Guests 21 April 2012 14:05
    1
    you are strange! E122 - red, E102 - poisonous yellow.
  8. d-danilka1998
    #8 d-danilka1998 Guests 19 September 2012 17:51
    1
    Is it dangerous if it gets on your skin?
  9. vovcik
    #9 vovcik Guests 27 January 2013 16:06
    1
    what if it doesn't explode
  10. bubatmb
    #10 bubatmb Guests 27 March 2013 13:58
    0
    everything worked out just a little light...