This is a quick demonstration of chemiluminescence, a chemical reaction, which produces light.

First weigh out 40 mg of potassium permanganate crystals.

We've included the match for scale to show you what this looks like.

Don't be tempted to increase the concentrations as the reaction is sensitive and will fail if you do.

Add the potassium permanganate to 500 ml of water in a large liter sized beaker.

Then stir well to dissolve.

You'll need the extra capacity in the beaker because the reaction bubbles and produces gas.

Next measure out 10 ml of 80% or above, phosphoric acid.

Add this to the potassium permanganate solution and stir well to incorporate.

The reaction is pH sensitive and ideally you want the solution to have a pH of around 2.

Now we'll add the potassium permanganate crystals.

Now weigh out 400 mg of sodium borohydride crystals.

Sodium borohydride is a little hard to obtain for the amateur chemist but we were lucky enough to have a professional donate 400 mg for this video.

Thanks.

Dissolve the sodium borohydride in 200 ml of cold water.

We used tap water and eucalyptus.

You can immediately see the borohydride starting to decompose into hydrogen gas.

This solution should only be prepared at the last minute when you want to run the experiment.

Here's a small portion of each of our two solutions.

So let's see what happens.

Mixing them together with the lights on isn't very exciting.

The permanganate instantly oxidizes the borohydride and the solution turns colorless.

Let's get the lights down.

An orange light is generated as the solutions mix.

It's not bright but it's easily seen.

Lights back on and the solution is colorless again.

Hope you enjoyed our little demo.

Stay tuned for more videos.