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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2006  > May  >
In the Classroom
JCE Classroom Activity
pHantastic Fluorescence
Mark Muyskens
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4403
Cover
May 2006
Vol. 83 No. 5
p. 768A

Abstract
In this Activity, students easily extract a fluorescent substance from shavings of a wood called narra. The fluorescence is dramatically pH dependent and can be turned on and off repeatedly using commonly available acid and base solutions. The striking blue fluorescence is the result of absorbing light from a black light and in response emitting longer wavelength visible light. Sunlight and standard fluorescent room lighting can also cause the solution to emit the blue fluorescence. A yellow filter will block the ultraviolet (and violet) light but not the fluorescent emission.

Featured on the cover.

Supplement
Notes for instructors, including color photographs of the activity set-up, are available.
*  Contents JCE2006p0768AW.doc (Microsoft Word)
*  Download
JCE2006p0768AW.pdf

JCE2006p0768AW.zip

More Information
*  Citation
Muyskens, Mark. J. Chem. Educ. 2006 83 768A.
*  Keywords
Analytical Chemistry; Demonstrations; Elementary / Middle School Science; First-Year Undergraduate / General; Fluorescence Spectroscopy; Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives; High School / Introductory Chemistry; Inquiry-Based / Discovery Learning; Natural Products; Nucleophilic Substitution; pH; Physical Chemistry; Public Understanding / Outreach; Solutions / Solvents; Upper-Division Undergraduate; UV-Vis Spectroscopy
*  History
Created:
Last Updated:
3/16/2006
3/31/2006
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2006  > May  > Page 768A



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