Is chemiluminescence safe to do at home?

Question

Hello

If anyone can help me it would be much appreciated. I am a young highschool student who loves to experiment now I have taken high school chemistry and did get an A in it but I am not sure if either of these are entirely safe to do at home. I have tried to look up MSDS of these chemicals but have not been able to find an exact msds for these and as such am a little worried.

The following links are the two experiments Ive seen they differ slightly my questions are

A) which one of these methods is the safest?
B) how safe exactly is it? is it safe to do at home?
C) how hard is it to get the chemicals needed to do these?

Site A)
http://cas.bellarmine.edu/chem117a/lab/luminol.htm

Site B)
http://library.thinkquest.org/3310/nographics/experiments/lumine.html
I believe this is the same experiment
http://qsad.bu.edu/curriculum/labs/Luminol3_1.html

If anyone knows of a safer way to perform this experiment i would really appreciate any step by step instructions

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Basically just don't swallow any of the chemicals, don't directly breathe in any of the fumes produced as a byproduct (do the experiment in a well ventilated room or open garage), wear rubber gloves (like the kind you use to do dishes with--sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate might cause some burning sensation and redness when it touches the skin), keep it contained so that the chemicals don't end up in places where people or animals can get into them.

Finding chemicals is another story. Copper sulfate might be difficult to find, unless you order it from a chemical supply company. Most of these companies won't just let you walk into a store and buy chemicals, or even order them on-line. You generally have to be a teacher or scientist and order through a school or business of some kind.

I still wouldn't recommend you do the experiment without the supervision of your chemistry teacher, but neither of the procedures should kill you if you mess them up. Just don't inhale, swallow, or touch anything with your bare hands...

Answer 2

You can buy chemiluminescent sticks at many sporting goods stores for a dollar or two. You start the reaction by bending the stick to break the glass ampoule inside which contains one of the chemicals; they then mix and react. Obviously, the chemicals are not horribly dangerous.