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Making glow-in-the-dark Strontium Aluminate
:(Chemistry) Important disclaimer: Several of the reagents used here are very corrosive and can produce toxic gasses. If you try to repeat this, at the very least please wear eye protection — no project is worth permanent blindness.
Because it’s nearly impossible to mix metal oxides on an atomic level, strontium aluminate is usually made by decomposing soluble nitrate salts: Once the partially melted blobs cooled, they were able to glow brightly, but only for a few minutes as opposed to the hours the commercial stuff is able to do. I’d blame this on reagent purity: While I can’t find any data on Strontium Aluminate specifically, many phosphors are very sensitive to stray metal ions, such as iron.
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