Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Citizen Chemist => Topic started by: jdurg on May 13, 2004, 11:10:40 AM
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Okay, this is really weird. I'm at work outside smoking a cigarette. There's this bush right by the ash tray with a bunch of REALLY bright lavender flowers on it. I was bored so I took my lit cigarette and put it against a flower. Where the cigarette contacted the flower, the flower turned a BRIGHT turquoise color! A lighter doesn't cause the change, neither does a lit match. Only a burning cigarette will do that. I'm wondering what compound/reaction is making this happen as it's incredibly neat. (Though the flower dies and falls off a few hours later). If I can figure out what is making this happen, I have an idea I'm thinking of that would be pretty sweet.
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It may have to do more with temperature than it does with chemicals. You may want to try the same experiment with a lower temp flame.
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Cigarettes also have some rare earth oxides in them. One experiment is to try and light a sugar cube on fire with a normal match; no dice. However, when you coat the sugar cube with cigarette ashes, you can light the sugar cube with no problems due to the rare earth metal oxides in there that lower the activation barrier for ignition of the sugar. It may have something to do with the flower.
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I figure that it's not anything to do with the temperature of the flame as the cigarette lighter and the match did nothing but wilt the flower. The cigarette flame is actually fairly hot, in terms of organic material, yet it just changed the color. It was pretty neat to see. The colors were almost like that of a cobalt complex ion. I'll have to try taking the colored leaves and dunking them in water to see if that changes it back from the turquoise-blue to lavender-purple color. ;D