Friday, October 3, 2008

Homemade Slime Recipe


Safety:
Not to be fed to your pet or baby brother. Not good for leaving in carpets or on furniture overnight. To keep almost indefinitely, leave in ziploc bag in refrigerator when not sliming! Not a bad idea to wash hands before (so it doesn't grow mold) and after (so mom will let you eat dinner) playing with it. Slime isn't exactly toxic, but its not food.


How to do the experiment:
Borax
White Glue
Water
Food Coloring (optional)
Ziploc bag

1. Borax is available in the laundry section of your local grocery store. Take a cup of water and add to it 1 Tbs. of borax (approx 4% solution). Stir until completely dissolved.

2. Make a 50% water 50% white glue solution. Take 1/4 cup of each and mix thoroughly.

3. In a ziploc bag, add equal parts of the borax solution to equal parts of the glue solution. 1/2 cup of each will make a cup of slime.

4. Add a couple drops of food coloring.

5. Seal bag and knead the mixture.

6. Dig in and have fun. Remember to wash your hands after playing.

7. Keep your slime in the sealed bag in the refrigerator when not playing with it to keep it longer. Unfortunately it may eventually dry out or grow mold. Just throw it out and start again!

Explanation:
The borax is acting as the crosslinking agent or "connector" for the glue (polyvinyl acetate) molecules. Once the glue molecules join together to form even larger molecules called polymers, you get a thickened gel very similar to slime. If you've tried this recipe (formula) before using blue starch (instead of the borax) with mixed results, you won't be disappointed with this one. Works everytime! If you have access to a chemical supply house, try a 4% solution of polyvinyl alcohol instead of the glue for a less rubbery polymer and one that is transparent showing off the color better.

And tonight is the first youth group/bible club; I am making grasshopper bars. Except without green Crème de menthe and white Crème de cacao.

2 comments:

PJ said...

lol what people do for the sake of staying off boredom. or was this a science experiment? either way it looks like something that should be turned green and added to someones Mountain Dew. hehe. I wonder if you'd have to pumped you're stomach after drinking that stuff.

Weird Science Kids said...

Im always looking for cool things to do with my kids. We whipped up a batch of slime. My boy loved it. I taught him about polymers, non-newtonian fluids and molecule chains while doing it. We cam accross a cool website with neat free science exeriments like this one. I will post it below for anyone interested.

http://weirdsciencekids.com/FunExperiments.html