glow powder fun.

[tuskiomi]

I just got some glow in the dark powder from my friends at amazon. I plan to do many experiments with this,one of which i'm going to mention. if you point a laser at the stuff, it glows very brightly afterwards.
That isn't the strangest thing, though.
if you point the laser at the powder for long enough, the glow diffuses through the substance, and eventally your laser is 'powering' a mound of the stuff.

The experiment I want to try out is to use different lasers, with different wavelengths to figure out the emperical formula of the powder based on the glow.
is this a viable thing to do?

 

[Laser Chick]

Re: glow poweder fun.

Not sure if each element will individually glow by using a different wave length. Different elements might glow using the same wave length, therefore you will not be able to differentiate the elements.

 

[tuskiomi]

well, the hydrogen will be inert, and immune to lasers, being that its only electon is bonded, and in a stable energy level. Carbon should be the same, though somewhat more obvious (because carbon is generally black for single bonds). nitrogen should be interesting, because of the hybridization. other elements could be more tricky. It should be fun, but is it possible?