How to Make Water Glow

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Luminous water can create a wonderful mysterious light for a dark room without consuming electricity like a regular neon light bulb. With just a few simple ingredients, you can make glowing water within minutes. Check out these recipes to add something special to your home for the upcoming party or Halloween.

Table of Contents

Use Tonic Mineral Water

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Pour mineral water into a clean jar. Believe it or not, tonic mineral water glows after being irradiated with UV/UV light, and gives a pretty good glow. ^{[1] X Research Source} To create this effect, first pour mineral water into a transparent vessel. You can dilute it with water if you want. However, if you add more water, the light will dim.

You can buy mineral water at any grocery store or supermarket for a few tens of thousands of dong. Make sure the water you buy is mineral water, not soda or soda water. The bottle says “contains quinine” or something similar.

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Shine the UV light on the mineral water bottle. All you need to do to get the water to glow is light it up with a UV lamp. Turn off the room lights before you start, or you will have a hard time observing the glow.

UV lamps are usually sold in specialty stores or online. The price depends on the size and brightness of the lamp, a typical lamp costs about 400,000 VND or less. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Don’t worry if you drink mineral water. Making mineral water glow with UV light makes the water look amazing , but doesn’t make the water toxic, radioactive or toxic to drink. However, mineral water contains high sugar and calories, you should limit drinking. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Mineral water glows this way because it contains a tiny chemical called “phosphorus”. When ultraviolet rays from a UV lamp (not visible to the naked eye) come into contact with phosphors, they are converted to a form visible to the naked eye, creating a luminous phenomenon. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Use a Marker Pen

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Buy and test markers to see if they glow. Not all markers will glow in the dark with UV light, so test them on white paper and then shine the light to see if they glow.

You can use any color, but yellow is most likely to glow in the dark.
You can use a pen from any brand, but you should choose a neon marker.
You will easily notice it glows in a completely dark room, with no light at all.

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Fill a transparent jar with water. Mineral water is not the only substance that contains phosphors that produce light; old-fashioned markers have the same ability. Start (same way as above) by filling the transparent jar with water.

Note that this may damage the marker; You can’t use the pen after you’re done.

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Remove the ink cartridge from the pen. If you just put the pen in the water tank, the ink cannot flow out in the direction of the nib quickly. So remove the ink cartridge from the pen. Here’s how to do it: ^{[5] X Research Source}

Open the pen cap.
Use pliers (or your hand if you’re not afraid of ink lines) to pull out the nib.
Use pliers to remove the bottom of the pen.
Carefully remove the ink cartridge from the pen, do not allow spills or ink lines on clothing.

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Place the nib and ink cartridge in the bottle. Drop the nib, ink tube, and all the ink you collect from the pen into the water. The ink will mix with the water and change the color of the water. Cut or break the ink tube so that the ink spills out. Stir the water to mix the ink evenly.

You can leave the ink cartridge and nib in the bottle after mixing the ink, or you can take them out.

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Shine a UV light on the water. Like the tonic water above, the dark room and the UV light will make the marker in the water glow. You can also attach a flashlight to the bottom of the jar to create a colored light (but then the “neon” effect of the UV light will disappear). ^{[6] X Research Source}

Unlike mineral water, do not drink glowing water made this way.

Use Fluorescent Paint

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Look for fluorescent paint at a craft store. Paint must be in the form of a water-soluble glue or solvent so that it can be mixed with water. You can purchase additional glow-in-the-dark craft paint for an extra effect.

As with markers, any neon paint will glow, but lemon yellow or lime green will work best.

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Pour paint into a cup of water. To increase the glow of the water, use as much paint as possible. A few tablespoons of paint mixed with a cup of water should suffice.

Use a Light Stick

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Fill the jar with water and have the materials ready. In this method, you will use water, glow sticks and some common ingredients to make water glow without the need for a UV light. In the same way as above, proceed to fill the transparent bottle with water. You need to prepare a few things before you start:

A few glow sticks
Drag
Dishwashing liquid
Hydrogen peroxide (hydrogen peroxide)
Waterproof gloves

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Break the glow stick. Pick up the glow stick, find the glass jar inside and bend it until the stick “breaks”. These tubes immediately glow, you will be easier to see if the lights are off. The more glow sticks you use, the brighter the water will be.

You can buy glow sticks at department stores (especially around Halloween). They are very cheap, a bag of 100 sticks costs about 250,000 VND. ^{[8] X Research Sources}
Try to find the biggest glow stick possible so that the water has the best luminescence.

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Pour the glow agent into the water. Wear gloves. Carefully cut off the tip of the glow stick with scissors and pour the solution inside into the water. Dissolve the solution in the water.

Be careful, you need to remember that each glow stick contains broken glass.

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Add hydrogen peroxide and dishwashing liquid (optional. ) Now the water is glowing, but with a few other ingredients you can make the water more luminous. Measure out a few lids of hydrogen peroxide and pour into the mixture, then add half a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid. (eg: Sunlight, beautician, .etc)

The two chemicals in the glow stick are diphenyl oxalate (in a plastic tube) and hydrogen peroxide (in a glass jar). ^{[9] X Research Source} When you break the rod, the glass vial inside breaks and the two chemicals mix, creating light. Adding hydrogen peroxide (hydrogen peroxide) increases the amount of chemicals in the glass jar, making the glow effect stronger. Dishwashing liquid contains chemicals that reduce the surface pressure of the water, making it easier for hydrogen peroxide and diphenyl oxalate to mix.

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Shake well and enjoy! When you’re done, close the mouth of the water bottle and shake well (or hide) to mix the ingredients. Once the job was done, the water was already glowing without the use of a UV lamp (although UV lamps can enhance the effect).

Do not drink this mixture.

Advice

Glowing water is very suitable for night parties. Fill a jar, vase, glass or translucent pot with glowing water, and place it around the house to delight guests.
You can use glowing water in the bath. Prepare a bath by mixing mineral water with non-toxic fluorescent paint in a warm bath. Turn on the UV light and turn off the bathroom light to feel the glow in the dark. Children love this, however, if you use fluorescent paint, be sure to supervise to prevent children from drinking this water.
You want to try creating a balloon battle filled with glowing water. Fill the balloon with glowing water and release it! Take the glow stick method, and hang out with your friends in the backyard at night, playing traditional games in the summer. Avoid getting water from the glow stick into your mouth or eyes.
If it’s snowing, try making the water glow for painting. Cool the water so it doesn’t melt the snow and pour it into the ink bottle. Take the bottle outside and pour it over the snow model you made. The kids will enjoy playing this game at night.
Try it out for experiments like lava lamps! You can use glowing water instead of night lights or lanterns on Halloween. It will be fun to play “trick or treat”, or you can use it as an accessory.

Steps

Use Tonic Mineral Water

Use a Marker Pen

Use Fluorescent Paint

Use a Light Stick

Advice

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