"Ghost metal" (chemistry trick)

Greetings fellow nerds. In this video we’re doing to give a piece of metal a ghostly glow when dipped in solution. First we make the solution. Get about 10mg of Luminol and add to it 10mL of a 10% ammonia solution, the exact concentration doesn’t matter. Shake it up until it completely dissolves. Now add in 1mL of 3% hydrogen peroxide and then dilute out the solution into 100mL of distilled water We are now ready to do the experiment. Get a deep dish and a piece of copper metal, in this case we’re going to use this penny. Now pour enough solution into the dish to cover the bottom. Turn off the lights and drop in the penny. The penny will now exhibit an eerie blue glow with ghostly trails as you move it around. What’s happening is the ammonia and hydrogen peroxide react with the copper and dissolve tiny amounts of it. The copper ammonia complex then catalyzes the chemiluminescence of the luminol and gives this blue light. So it’s not the metal that’s glowing, it’s the solution around it. It doesn’t last very long as the copper continually dissolves and soon the entire solution bath will glow. The luminol is quickly used up and the reaction extinguishes. In that case, just pour out the solution, wash out the dish, and refill with fresh solution. It’s a simple chemistry trick, but an alternative way to demonstrate the chemiluminescence of luminol. Thanks for watching. Please subscribe, like and comment.