How does glow-in-the-dark stuff work?
You see glow-in-the-dark stuff in all kinds of places, but it is most common in toys. My son, for example, has a glow-in-the-dark yo-yo, a glow-in-the-dark ball, a glow-in-the-dark mobile and even (if you can believe it) a pair of glow-in-the-dark pajamas! They make him easy to find at night! If you have ever seen any of these products, you know that they all have to be “charged”. You hold them up to a light, and then take them to a dark place. In the dark they will glow for 10 minutes. Some of the newer glow-in-the-dark stuff will glow for several hours. Usually it is a soft green light, and it is not very bright. You need to be in nearly complete darkness to notice it. All glow-in-the-dark products contain phosphors . A phosphor is a substance that radiates visible light after being energized. The two places where we most commonly see phosphors are in a TV screen or computer monitor and in fluorescent lights . In a TV screen, an electron beam strikes the phosphor to energize it (see
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question388.htm All glow-in-the-dark products contain phosphors. A phosphor is a substance that radiates visible light after being energized. http://ask.yahoo.com/20030506.html The knowledgeable staff at How Stuff Works notes that most glow-in-the-dark toys contain either zinc sulfide or strontium aluminate, because these substances have relatively long phosphor persistence (i.e., they glow longer) Safety (MSDS) data for phosphorus, red http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/PH/phosphorus_red.html Safety (MSDS) data for phosphorus, white http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/PH/phosphorus_white.html MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET PRODUCT: PHOSPHORUS PENTASULPHIDE http://www.starchemicals.com/msds_pp.htm SECTION 3 HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION Environment :Very toxic to aquatic organisms Zinc sulfide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_sulfide strontium aluminate MSDS 3 MSDS Reports came up: ST184-5KG SODIUM ALUMINATE TG ST184-500G SODIUM ALUMI
