Warning: TCPO is carcinogenic and you should wear gloves and masks while working with it.
The procedure is simple, mix together:
500mg of 9,10-bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene
17g of TCPO (Also known as bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)oxalate)
500mL of diethyl phthalate solvent
Heat it up until it dissolves. Then top it up to about 2.1 liters and add 120mL of hydrogen peroxide and 10g of sodium acetate. Shake thoroughly and draw into a 100 ft glow stick with an inner diameter of 3/8". Suction by a vacuum pump is recommended.
To prevent spilling the ends should be capped with brass or plastic compression fittings. Leave 5+ feet of space in the tube to allow for expansion of the chemicals depending on temperature.
Glow stick will last for about 6 hours. Use more TCPO if a longer glow is needed.
Congrats, now you have a 100 foot glow stick.
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I couldn't submit this to the Halloween contest. But i hope all of you still enjoy it anyway :)
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so if you don't add the 9,10-bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene it will simply be dark and do NOTHING visible.
I know, I know!!! Cut them up in small sections, 4 to 8 inches with a breakable vial of the stuff that activates....wait. What? They already have that? Well, never mind.
Wish I had paid more attention to chemistry in high-school.
Great N-Structable!
The leftover 30g of residues we then combine with our other halogenated wastes and once we accumulate about 100kg of toxic wastes we call a chemical waste management company to dispose of it for us.
Costs a lot of money for disposal of such viciously toxic compounds but it's the responsible thing to do.
Here in Indy (the days are counting down to GenCon!), there are two services which are provided every so often:
1) pulverizing paper (software can overcome that) for $5 per bag/box) the lines look like a whore house on dollar days, even with multiple queues. The company which does it basically gets (nearly) free advertising. The lines are incredibly long even if have 2/4 queues. It's like "a whore house on dollar days."
2) another service, this one is free, is like a drive-thru for HazMat , focusing upon the disposal of old Rx, aerosols, ... there are are always a number of Hg deposits
The TV media tells people if something looks odd, dusty/dirty containers, avoid it and schedule ASAP time with HazMat.
phil
Not really comments i'm after, but views.
and suffice it to say... alot more than what i'm getting now. ;)
As kids we use to break open glow sticks and cover our walls with the liquid. How toxic is this stuff?
but i have not seen a formulation which fits my standard of this. The ones i've seen are less toxic than say... drinking gasoline, but are certainly not edible or even safe to put on your hands.
Unforunately the manufacturers don't want to reveal their secret compositions so we can't test if their new formulations are really non-toxic.
awesome project btw.
The chemicals are pretty expensive when you buy them on a small scale like this.
The glow stick companies can make it cheaper because they go on mult-tonne scales.
They would be great!