Ghostly glow

Taming a chemical ghost

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

At­ten­tion! All ex­per­i­ments are per­formed by pro­fes­sion­als. Do not at­tempt.

Equip­ment

  • al­ka­line lu­mi­nol so­lu­tion;
  • thick pa­per;
  • q-tip, ozoniz­er.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

A q-tip is dipped in an al­ka­line lu­mi­nol so­lu­tion and is used to draw a ghost on a piece of thick pa­per. The lights are turned off and a stream of ozone is di­rect­ed at the draw­ing – the draw­ing glows blue!

Process de­scrip­tion

Ozone ox­i­dizes lu­mi­nol. In the process, en­er­gy is re­leased as a blue glow.

A safer ver­sion of this ex­per­i­ment is in­clud­ed in the “Chem­istry & light” set from the MEL Chem­istry sub­scrip­tion for chem­istry kits.

Try it