hanson wrote:

[Fraooq]
A recent paper claims weak chemiluminescence from the
famous KMnO4 + oxalic acid reaction, though never observed
practically

[hanson]
Check whether fumes over Mn2O7[*] when made from KMnO4
+ Oleum glow in the dark. I seem to recall such an event when
I was a teenager and playing around with all that good stuff,
.... which had to be badly stinky, highly toxic or best of all
be explosive to the touch... to be considered as good stuff!

Long time, I also presumably made this nasty substance when I added
KMnO4 to conc. sulfuric acid which generated purple particulate smoke.
It turned out to be so reactive that a wooden splinter would catch fire
or anything organic would burst into flames.

So an advice: Do not experiment with it in the DARK.


[*] = nasty irritant (1), explosive (2) dark oil (3), they say.
I can only attest to (3)... as it didn't seem to be more (1)t han
the migraines I got from nitroglycerine, nor more (2) than
fulminated Hg, of which I carried 3-4 oz around for weeks
in a glass bottle with rubber stopper and gave demos with
it in school to the delight of the teachers.... ahahaha...
Yeah, them golden days of chemistry... a magic world!