Chemistry club’s haunted labs may come to an end
Students from the physics department had community members spooked Friday, and not just because of the frightening atmosphere. The science behind “Haunted Labs: The Sequel” could be enough to make anyone scream.
“This year Chemistry Club was incorporated into the mix of things, where previously it had just been the Society of Physics Students, and they did a really good job,” College of Science Senator John Watson said.
The students of the American Chemical Society had several reactions to contribute regarding the haunted labs this year.
President of ACS Heather Tarbert said, “We had glowing slime, the stoplight reaction, the methylene blue reaction and the fake blood.”
“Slime is made by a reaction of two components,” Tarbert said. “One is a polymer that dissolves in water. The other is a salt that causes the polymer chains to come together in a process called cross-linking. The polymer name is polyvinyl alcohol, and the salt used for cross-linking these polymer chains together is borax, or sodium borate.”
The reaction of the borate and the polymers forms weak bonds known as hydrogen bonds. These hold the chains of the polymers together and add stiffness. The more borate molecules in the reaction, the more stiff the slime will be, Tarbert said.
The reason the slime glows is due to a compound known as zinc sulfide, which is also a phosphor and exhibits what is known as phosphorescence — or a glowing effect.
“This means that the compound, after being charged by absorbing energy, emits light slowly into the visible spectrum,” Tarbert said.
There is a possibility Haunted Labs may not continue in the future.
“It’s very time intensive and we have not really made enough of a profit to justify the amount of work that gets put into the event,” Tarbert said.
Although this may be the case, some students who attended said they thoroughly enjoyed it.
Freshman and international business major Trevor Olsen said, “I thought it was really fun. They put it together really well. But it was really short. I wish there were more things to go through. If it had been the same, only twice as long, it would be perfect.”
“There was a lot of chemistry stuff,” Olsen said. “There was glowy stuff everywhere. The vortex cannon was cool.”
At the end of the queue, a brochure was available explaining the chemistry behind some of the major experiments to help better educate people on the science behind the event.
“I read the pamphlet they had, and I want to try and make some of that stuff, like the glow-in-the-dark slime,” Olsen said.
Lindsey Kim, a junior majoring in music therapy said, “I thought it was so much fun, and it was really well done for students who have no professional background in theater or performance. I thought it was really impressive.”
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