Fireshow

One "secret ingredient" – and the color of the flame changes instantly!

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

Sci­en­tif­ic de­scrip­tion

Sul­fu­ric acid forces boric acid and ethanol to re­act, yield­ing a new com­pound – tri­ethylb­o­rate. This sub­stance eas­i­ly evap­o­rates when the flask is shak­en and burns out if a burn­ing match is ap­plied. In this process, tri­ethylb­o­rate’s boron atoms ab­sorb ex­cess en­er­gy and re­lease it al­most in­stant­ly as green light. What a fire show!

More sci­en­tif­ic se­crets await you in the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion!