'Magic' writing
Messages or pictures are drawn on absorbent paper using a variety of colourless solutions and allowed to dry, rendering them invisible. Subsequently spraying the paper with solutions that contain different reagents that react with one or more of the chemicals on the paper to produce colours reveals the messages or pictures.
Read our standard health & safety guidance
Lesson organisation
Taken at an entertainment level there is plenty to interest an audience and there is wide variety of chemical reactions taking place. This demonstration would be a good introduction or finale to a general lecture demonstration on chemistry, or for an Open Day presentation.
A-level students should be able to appreciate the chemistry involved and could be encouraged to use this as useful extension work.
The demonstration lasts about 3 minutes, but more than this if discussion or repeats are involved.
Apparatus and chemicals
For each demonstration:
Eye protection: goggles
Protective gloves (preferably nitrile)
Large sheet of filter paper (see note 1)
Beakers (100 cm3), 6
Small paintbrushes (see note 2), several
Spray bottles (see note 3), 3
Hair drier (optional)(see note 5)
Potassium hexacyanoferrate(II)-3-water (potassium ferrocyanide-3-water) (Low hazard), 5 g
Copper(II) sulfate-5-water (Harmful), 5 g
Ammonium thiocyanate (Harmful), 5 g
Iron(III) nitrate-9-water (Oxidising, irritant), 5 g
Lead(II) nitrate (Toxic, Dangerous for environment), 5 g
Potassium iodide (Low hazard), 5 g
Ammonia solution, 2 mol dm-3, 100 cm3
Phenolphthalein indicator solution (Highly flammable), a few cm3
Deionised or distilled water, 1 dm3
Technical notes
Potassium hexacyanoferrate(II)-3-water (potassium ferrocyanide-3-water) (Low hazard) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 79
Copper(II) sulfate-5-water (Harmful, Dangerous for environment) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 27C
Ammonium thiocyanate (Harmful) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 9B
Iron(III) nitrate-9-water (Oxidising, irritant) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 55C
Lead(II) nitrate (Toxic, Dangerous for environment) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 57A
Potassium iodide (Low hazard) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 47B
Aqueous ammonia, 2 mol dm-3.(Low hazard at this concentration) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 6 and Recipe card 4
Phenolphthalein indicator solution (Highly flammable) Refer to CLEAPSS Hazcard 32 and Recipe Card 33
1 Chromatography paper or even white blotting paper can also be used.
2 Paint brushes used for painting models would be ideal. Alternatively, wooden splints could be used.
3 Ideal spray bottles are those used to spray house plants. However, instead of using spray bottles the solutions could be painted on with a large paint brush.
4 It is important to avoid the risk of breathing in the fine sprays of liquid (especially lead(II) nitrate, which is harmful by inhalation and a category 1 teratogen), so the room should be well ventilated or the experiment could be carried out using a fume cupboard.
5 Make sure the hair drier has been electrically (PAT) tested.
Procedure
Before the demonstration
HEALTH & SAFETY: Wear goggles and protective gloves.
Take special care to avoid breathing lead nitrate spray, and wash hands sfter handling this solution.
a For each of the solids, dissolve 5 g in 100 cm3 of deionised/distilled water. The lead nitrate solution should be labelled Toxic.
b Transfer the solutions of iron(III) nitrate, lead(II) nitrate and aqueous ammonia into separate spray bottles. Adjust the nozzles of the bottles so that they deliver a fine mist, and spray several times to ensure that the spray contains the solution and not the water remaining from washing out the bottle.
c Use the paintbrushes to write suitable messages or designs on the piece of filter paper using the solutions of potassium iodide, potassium hexacyanoferrate(II), ammonium thiocyanate, phenolphthalein and copper sulphate.
d Leave the paper to dry or use a hair drier. Work on a piece of clean newspaper to avoid picking up chemicals from the surface of the bench. All of the solutions will dry colourless with the exception of copper sulphate, which will be a very pale blue – undetectable, except to the most sharp-eyed members of the audience.
The demonstration
It is important not to over spray the paper with the reagents, as otherwise the colours will run.
a In a fume cupboard spray the paper with the solution of lead nitrate. The message written in potassium iodide will show up as bright yellow lead iodide.
b Now spray with the iron(III) nitrate. The message written with potassium hexacyanoferrate(II) will turn dark blue. The one written with ammonium thiocyanate will turn red-brown.
c Now spray with the ammonia solution. The phenolphthalein will turn pink, the copper sulphate blue and the red-brown colour of the iron thiocyanate complex will almost disappear.
Teaching notes
A variety of suitable messages could be used such as "Welcome" or "The end", as appropriate. Alternatively an equation could be written up so that the reactants are revealed by the first spray, the products with the second spray, and the balancing numbers for the third.
Some of the reactions are worth discussing with the audience. Even fairly young students will know that phenolphthalein turns red in the presence of alkali, and that the pink writing could be hidden again using a dilute acid as a spray.
The theory behind the appearance of the colours is as follows:
A The spraying of potassium iodide with aqueous lead(II) nitrate involves the precipitation of bright yellow lead(II) iodide:
Pb2+(aq) + 2I–(aq) → PbI2(s)
B The spraying with iron(III) nitrate causes a reaction with the hexacyanoferrate(II) ions, forming an intense blue colour known as "Prussian blue". Recent research on the composition of the compound known as Prussian blue shows that it has a complex formula of the form Fex(CN)y.zH2O. Meanwhile, the intense red colour produced by spraying with ammonium thiocyanate writing involves a ligand exchange reaction:
[Fe(H2O)6]3+(aq) + CNS–(aq) → [Fe(CNS)(H2O)5]2+ (aq)
Both of these reactions form the basis of the detection of iron(III) ions.
C The spraying with the aqueous ammonia has a predictable effect on the phenolphthalein writing, and causes the pale blue hexaaquacopper(II) ions to form the intensely blue tetraamminediaquacopper(II) ions:
[Cu(H2O)6]2+(aq) + 4NH3(aq) → [Cu(NH3)4(H2O)2]2+(aq) + 4H2O(l)
Meanwhile the intense red colour of the iron thiocyanate complex is replaced by a much less intense brown colour since hydroxide ions cause ligand exchange to form iron(III) hydroxide:
[Fe(CNS)(H2O)5]2+(aq) + 3OH–(aq) → [Fe(OH)3(H2O)3](s) + CNS–(aq) + 2H2O(l)
A possible variation is to spray with a mixture of lead nitrate and iron(III) nitrate. This brings out the yellow, blue and brown colours simultaneously.
A large number of alternative colour reactions can be used as the basis for 'magic' writing. It is suggested that these are tried out first, especially where mixtures are involved.
Health & Safety checked, August 2008
Updated 17 Nov 2008
4 out of 5
Sweet experiment man, love the pretty colors dude!!!
Submitted by: Jimmy on 12 June 2009