Is this Cornflour ?

[bigmack]

I found this tray of ziplocked bags that has something in it that I suspect is cornflower by the feel of when I squish the bag .
I've asked HT and she has no idea what it was used for or what it is .

Frustrating thing is I have been asked to get 1kg of Cornflower and ziplocked bags for a slime prac .
(You all would be proud of me , I questioned the Borax prac requested and they had no Idea it was not good and found an alternative)

Anyway..... do any of you have a cunning way to test /prove it is/isn't Cornflower .

Cornflour.jpg

[Merilyn1]

Feed some to Year 8?

[RosalieL]

iodine test for starch?

[bigmack]

Feed some to Year 8?

Probably wouldn’t take much convincing ….. but no

iodine test for starch?

Brilliant Rosalie . I missed the bleeding obvious .
Knew one of you would have a suggestion .

Will test it on Tuesday .

I just hate unlabelled things . I get that hazardous stuff must be labeled , but I guess we have to treat anything not labeled as hazardous until proven otherwise .

And then if you don’t know what it is , how do you know how to dispose of it .

[Merilyn1]

There is a process for disposing of unknowns - label it as "unknown chemical" and put it in with your next chemical clean up. There really is no other way.

[Loopy]

You people are all too smart for me... my advice would have been not to snort it!

[Marama T]

I doubt it's "cornflower". It may, however, be cornflour.

[RosalieL]

Feed some to Year 8?

Probably wouldn’t take much convincing ….. but no

iodine test for starch?

Brilliant Rosalie . I missed the bleeding obvious .
Knew one of you would have a suggestion .

Will test it on Tuesday .

I just hate unlabelled things . I get that hazardous stuff must be labeled , but I guess we have to treat anything not labeled as hazardous until proven otherwise .

And then if you don’t know what it is , how do you know how to dispose of it .

This will only tell you if it is starchy though... but cornfour is pretty cheap so if in doubt just toss it or set it aside as unknown like Merilyn suggested.

[mtg]

As it is in ziplock bags etc, I doubt it is harmful. Personally I'd just open it feel the texture and take it from there. Test the prac with it, if it works use gloves and do it, kids can't take it home anyway. Also what is the prac without borax that works? If it is used properly borax is no worse than all the acids the kids use.

[Merilyn1]

I thought borax was tetragenic? Mutagenic or something. So it is the long lasting problems, not just the corrosiveness issue.

If I was confident the powder in the bags was only cornflour, I would still throw it out as you don't know if it has been contaminated.

[Milo]

Last I heard the advice on borax was to make a 4% solution to make it safer, although according to RiskAssess even then the hazards are unknown at that concentration. Higher than that and you get warnings about fertility and long-term health effects. Probably best to avoid it as Merilyn says.

[bigmack]

I doubt it's "cornflower". It may, however, be cornflour.

Woops , your are probably right there Marama . Spelling was never my strong suit .

well I did the Iodine test , and it was a positive for starch , so most like likely is Just Cornflour

Apparently the alternate slime prac uses Cornflour and dishwashing liquid .Have got a riskassess ordered but haven't seen a description .How good it works is another thing .

Iodine test.jpg

[RosalieL]

It's just cornfour and water mixed together (food colouring added if you want). For some reason, nearly every recipe I've ever seen says to add the food colouring at the end and work it through but if you add it to the water before mixing the cornflour in then you don't get it all over your hands and you also get an even colour. It is a bit messier to play with than the borax one though.

[bigmack]

I just tried the one our HT wants .You can use Conditioner or Dishwashing liquid .
Both seemed to work about the same .
although the amount of liquid seems more than required . it is sticky .

And yes , the mystery stuff in my bags seems to be Cornflour , well at least it works the same as known Cornflour .

Slime.jpg

It's just cornfour and water mixed together (food colouring added if you want). For some reason, nearly every recipe I've ever seen says to add the food colouring at the end and work it through but if you add it to the water before mixing the cornflour in then you don't get it all over your hands and you also get an even colour. It is a bit messier to play with than the borax one though.

Might try that one too Rosalie .LOL it can't be any more messy than the other ones .

[RosalieL]

I just tried the one our HT wants .You can use Conditioner or Dishwashing liquid .
Both seemed to work about the same .
although the amount of liquid seems more than required . it is sticky .

And yes , the mystery stuff in my bags seems to be Cornflour , well at least it works the same as known Cornflour .

Slime.jpg

It's just cornfour and water mixed together (food colouring added if you want). For some reason, nearly every recipe I've ever seen says to add the food colouring at the end and work it through but if you add it to the water before mixing the cornflour in then you don't get it all over your hands and you also get an even colour. It is a bit messier to play with than the borax one though.

Might try that one too Rosalie .LOL it can't be any more messy than the other ones .

Those recipes are for more like playdough than slime... if you just use water you just need to play with the quantities a bit. You'll get the right consistency eventually! When you hit it hard it's like cement but if you're gentle it's gooey.