Glow in the dark paint was big in the 1980s. You could get it not only as toys (and boy were there a lot of those) but also as paint, on clothes, watches, jewelry… you name it. One problem though. There was only this one shade of green. Well, two problems because the effect didn’t last long either. You turned off the lights and the effect would last for a few minutes then you had turn the lights back on to ‘charge’ the item again.

Skip a decade or two and the world was introduced to the awesomeness of strontium aluminate. This compound, a white powder, not only glowed brighter and longer but could be spiked with a number of rare earth metals to make it glow in pretty much any color. Unfortunately, it also happens to be quite a bit more costly so it didn’t end up ringing in a new revolution in glow-in-the-dark toys but it is now used extensively all the same. If you’re wealthy, you can even have your driveway paved over with glow in the dark gravel. If not, well at least maybe your fish tank.

This here ampule? Won’t glow at all. Pure strontium metal is exceptionally difficult to get it to stay metallic looking. The high-end glove boxes where it’s prepared may boast of oxygen levels in the parts per billion range, which is all well and good, but the metal is also tarnished by traces of nitrogen and carbon dioxide - two gases which are not chased away with the same gusto as they don’t present a problem for most metals. Of course, “most” being the keyword here… strontium is extremely sensitive to basically anything else.

How - one might ask - is it that as little as one contaminating atom in a million can spoil the beauty of an element? Surely that has to be hyperbole.

It’s not.

As proof, you may have already noticed how much a “dead pixel” can spoil a screen with otherwise millions of other functioning pixels. With most metals, an oxidized atom on a surface is virtually unnoticeable but the more chemically reactive the metal the more it becomes obvious.

And strontium is supremely vulnerable to the marring effects of the oxygen atom. Keeping strontium pristine is a challenge out of reach of most amateur chemists because of the enormous difficulty involved in clearing out a chamber of all traces of oxygen, water vapor and other contaminants to achieve a truly inert atmosphere in which to work with. Only then can this delicate metal be free to develop its crystalline character.

For those in the know, a sample of perfectly lustrous strontium is a prized possession and an even higher bonus if it’s in crystalline form!