Australia's Science Forum

Morning,

Is it ok to use borax to make slime???

Morning!!
We use a 4% solution of Borax to make our slime!!
Lorrae

Yes, we too use 4% borax and it is safe according to DET.
We use 4%PVA soln or clear glue. I find the glue works well and dont have to worry about dissolving PVA which can be pain.
Lada

Hi
What do you use the slime for?

fun

Thanks for your help, but after turning the entire chemistry store upside down looking for my borax, which according to my inventory we should have plenty plenty of, I have come to the conclusion that the lab rats must have hidden it in some very safe place

So I am now desperate for an alternative slime... I found a recipe for corn flour slime but the teacher in question did not like that one,... so do YOU wonderful, beautiful and, lovely chemtalk crowd now of another alternative that makes good slime

Sanscha

Hi Sassi,
You probably know this, but I'm mentioning it because I have made this mistake before. Borax is also known as Sodium Tetraborate. I've spent a lot of time looking for things that are known by more than one name, and even if you know them, sometimes it doesn't twig. I can't help with an alternate recipe. All mine contain Borax.
Cheers,
Lisa

Hi Labman

Ahhh yes... I did make that misstake... but I remembered halfway through my raid of the chemstore, but still no luck Thanks for the tip anyways!

Hi,
You can just buy Powdered Borax in the laundry aisle at the supermarket - comes in a white 500g jar with a red lid.
Cheers
LIZ

We also use Borax for slime, but we mix it with a 50% PVA glue solution. We get the kids to mix it in a ziplock bag. That way they have something to store it in, and there isn't the hassle of washing slime from beakers. ( Their washing skills are nearly non existant. I threaten to set them the washing up for homework. It seems to be working so far.)

Pat

You need borax for the reaction. PVA and other natural gums contain hydroxyl and diol hydroxyl groups along the polymer backbone. The diol hydroxyls will interact with borate ions to cross-link different polymer chains. I have no idea what I just said, but this might give you an idea, why borax is needed . So borax is cheapest,easiest and safest to obtain
lada

My HT made some a couple of weeks ago, using psyllium husks - worked brilliantly!

200mL water
Add 4-5 drops food colouring
Heat water over Bunsen
When bubbles start to form, add 2 heaped teaspoons of psyllium
Stir continuously until you get a sticky/gooey mixture like snot (no kidding - this is what it says on the page! )
Turn off Bunsen, and continue stirring until cool mixture cools enough to transfer beaker to heat mat. Leave until cold.

Have fun!

I have a new science teacher who has given me a fabulous recipe for slime.

MATERIALS: 100ml beaker, Clag clear gum, Glycerine, Hand cream (Sorbolene), food colouring, stirring rod and Super-Saturated Borax solution.

METHOD: In a 100ml beaker,

ADD: 25ml clag clear gum; 2 or 3 drops of glycerine; 6 pumps of handcream; 2 drops of food colouring. (Put it all together and you have an approximation of PVA).

MIX WELL.

ADD 15ml of Super-Saturated Borax solution. Stir quickly and remove from beaker.

Lyn.
PS. I had to make it up first before it got the stamp of approval. It works really well.

We use the clear glue. To about 30-50ml of glue add 5-10ml of 4%borax. We don't add anything else and works really well.
With this recipe the slime is much harder, it forms a ball, you can bounce on the desk. The PVA uses 50ml of 4%PVA soln with 5-10ml of 4%borax. It is runny and slimy. To both you can add colour.
We mix them in disposable plastic drinking cup and DISPOSE, so you dont have a lot of washing up of colourful beakers.
Have fun

My daughter's pre school used to make slime with lux flakes?????

I use guar gum to make insane slime! If you make it without glycerol you get a fairly firmish gel slime, and if you add glycerol you get real halloween/snot slime. We always make slime up in disposable plastic cups, with plastic teaspoons to measure ingredients and wooden pop sticks to stir. That means NO washing up for me! It also makes it possible to do as an end of term experiment while I'm busy doing other stuff.

Guar gum (available from health food shops) can be made into solution by adding two heaped teaspoons to 2 Litres of warm water. The trick is that you HAVE to add it sprinkle by sprinkle, and stir a lot. If you get impatient and just dump it in the water it will clump and never dissolve. Store this in any 2L bottle - it's food grade after all,so an old soft drink bottle will do.

Borax can be made at a ratio of 15g/300mL. You don't need much.

Cheers, K

ry's

RosalieM wrote:fun

Hi Rosalie

The dates for St Mary's are definately 27 & 28 Nov and the accomodation is at Park view
I can't wait.

hope this helps

We don't start hols until 11 april and we only have 2 weeks off these hols

c ya
Linda

So where were all you guys last week? One of my teachers wanted to make Borax slime. another teacher told her to just add a couple of teaspoons full of PVA to a couple of teaspoons full of Borax. (I knew nothing about it). We just got a hard white ball, and were very disappointed with the result. I will have to try some of these recipes now!!
regards
Ian

Our middle schoolers recently made slime. Simply add 2 spoonfulls of borax powder (from the supermarket) to 2 spoonfulls of PVA glue. Add 2 drops of food colouring and stir. Very simple and easy to clean up if you use throwaway cups and paddle pop sticks.

Joy

Procedure
Using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA):
¨ Pour about 100 ml of water (no hotter than 90 °C) into a 400 ml beaker, add 4 g of high-mass (8 g of low-mass) polyvinyl alcohol, stirring rapidly. Add food colouring and/or fluorescent dye, eg, fluorescein, for added (disgusting) effect. (Solution A.)
¨ Heat to 90 °C (but do not boil) and keep stirring as required until the polymer dissolves. Allow the solution to cool. All of this may take some time!
¨ If a high-mass PVA was used to make solution A, dissolve 0.80 g of sodium tetraborate-10-water (0.42 g of anhydrous sodium tetraborate) in 20 ml of water. If a low-mass PVA was used, dissolve 1.6 g of sodium tetraborate-10-water (0.84 g of anhydrous sodium tetraborate) in 20 ml of water. (Solution B.)
¨ Add solution B to A with vigorous stirring. Let the gel form before removing and washing it with water.
Using PVA glue:
¨ Dilute it to about 25%; there is no need to heat it but mix it well with water. Add sodium tetraborate as
prepared above for use with low-mass PVA. Change the concentration of PVA glue to alter the ‘slime’ quality.