Fluorescent Substances

bluing in detergents makes your shirts appear whiter by all the flourescing it does.

I think that zinc sulfide is active under UV light in all its frequencies.
If you look up "flourescent minerals" Im sure you can figure out the responses for natural rocks and minerals>


What are you planning?

Thank you for that info! Actually, I already checked out which minerals fluoresce. If I recall correctly, willemite seems to have the best fluorescent properties. However, knowing that wasn't much help. What I really need to know is whether there is a fluorescent paint made of this substance.
I read an interesting article on UV light and fluorescence recently and decided to carry out a few experiments of my own-not that I'm a scientist or anything. But, I thought it would be interesting to coat a piece of card or something with the above mentioned paint and see how many UV light sources I could find around the house.
By the way, you mentioned detergent; does this contain zinc sulfide?

You can always shoot electrons at phosphors if you get bored.

the brighteners in detergents are a diethyl-diphenyl compound called stilbene. They isolated the chemical from plant stems years ago and have synthesized a nifty form that is used as an additive in detergents which jack up the UV reflectance and make your wash look bright.

If youre looking for a real phosphor type, Id suggest using something like Titanium dioxide paste(its a white glop that is used for paint pigment)

What are you trying to do? maybe I can give you some better advice.