mysteriusbhoice
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Homemade Chlorine indicator made with blue food coloring and any mineral acid
I have created this very sensitive Chlorine indicator solution that detects chlorinating compounds in solution.
Created by mixing brilliant blue FCF with any mineral acid or partially neutralized salts like sodium bisulphate in this case turning the solution
green and if this new mixture is added to water that contains even trace amounts of chlorine or chlorinating compounds the dye will turn yellow to
red.
I do not really know what is going on here yet because i found this out by accident when i spilled the 2 reagents in my bathroom.
video below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxEOcQ2AlKQ
[Edited on 1-11-2016 by mysteriusbhoice]
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j_sum1
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Lovely discovery. I think I am going to have to try this.
Is this an indicator specific to available chlorine or does it merely indicate oxidising conditions?
If the latter, it might be worth running some tests applying a voltage to a solution.
I sense a pretty good investigation brewing here. 
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mysteriusbhoice
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Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  | Lovely discovery. I think I am going to have to try this.
Is this an indicator specific to available chlorine or does it merely indicate oxidising conditions?
If the latter, it might be worth running some tests applying a voltage to a solution.
I sense a pretty good investigation brewing here. |
It is very sensetive and even a tiny amount of chlorine will change its color.
Tap water is a no no when making this solution because i tried it and the solution turned red instead of green.
I have mixed potassium chlorate with it and it did not change its color.
I need to test if hydrogen peroxide will affect it.
I also will try to test the solution on electrolysis
[Edited on 1-11-2016 by mysteriusbhoice]
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j_sum1
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Do you have some bromine or iodine solution you can play with?
Is it reversible -- say if you dump some ascorbic acid or zinc in it?
I guess what I want to know is exactly what it is indicating for. It is curious that it does not do anything with chlorate.
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mysteriusbhoice
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| Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1 | Do you have some bromine or iodine solution you can play with?
Is it reversible -- say if you dump some ascorbic acid or zinc in it?
I guess what I want to know is exactly what it is indicating for. It is curious that it does not do anything with chlorate. |
I had no internet for a week but on that time i did several tests on the solution.
Electrolysis without anything but the dilluted solutionof indicator does not change the color until 1 hour later.
probably due to chloride impurities
electrolysis with a pinch of salt in a dillute solution of indicator turns the color yellow to red immidiately.
a drop of bleach turns the dilluted indicator solution red to yellow immidiately
Iodine turns the color yellow when only moderate amounts are added.
Also tested the same amount of Iodine on water alone and on a blue food coloring alone to make sure its not just coloring the solution.
I did not test hydrogen peroxide or bromine
added parts:
I tried to reverse it by changing the ph back to neutral and measuring using a ph pen and it didnt work.
I havent tried zinc but i do have some spare eveready batteries that are unused so i might take some from there.
it really seems to only change with chlorine releasing compounds. or hypochlorite ions
I also dont have HCl and i want to test that as an acidifier for the blue food coloring to see if it will turn red immidiately or not
[Edited on 10-11-2016 by mysteriusbhoice]
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Metacelsus
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Take a look at this:
https://www.google.com/patents/WO2011137484A1?cl=en
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Sulaiman
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I have been using methylene blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylene_blue
as an indicator for the presence of oxidiser
a tiny quantity gives intense blue in the presence of oxygen for sure
and it should be very sensitive to chlorine.
I amused myself for quite a while with a little dilute glucose/dextrose solution in a bottle, with a little methylene blue.
Shaking the bottle dissolves oxygen into the water, which turns deep blue.
On standing, the glucose slowly removes the dissolved oxygen, turning the solution clear within minutes,
except for a thin surface layer.
Shake the bottle and it goes blue again .... until you get bored.
the "Blue Bottle" experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_bottle_experiment
EDIT: I bought 25g methylene blue, many lifetimes worth 
[Edited on 10-11-2016 by Sulaiman]
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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byko3y
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I would be glad to find out other usefull dye for analytical purpose. So sad some really cool reagents are not allowed to be ued as dyes or are
unpractical, like Fast Blue B Salt.
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mysteriusbhoice
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I knew som1 probably already found this out for sure.
I think it only turned red because that food coloring has a bit of red dye in it after reading the ingredients list.
the blue dissapears leaving the red behind.
Its just cool to think that i saw a chlorine testing solution of very small quantity sold at a price thats like 10x higher than what is spent for
making 500ml of this solution because you only need very little dye to see the color change.
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mysteriusbhoice
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| Quote: Originally posted by byko3y | | I would be glad to find out other usefull dye for analytical purpose. So sad some really cool reagents are not allowed to be ued as dyes or are
unpractical, like Fast Blue B Salt. |
Sometime way back I wanted to make colored smoke bombs but the dyes used aren't found anywhere near me.
then i saw a video with a guy using oil pastel crayons and with luck probably one or two of those crayons contain aniline dyes and not pigments or
other dyes.
[Edited on 10-11-2016 by mysteriusbhoice]
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