How to Reveal Fingerprints With Iodine Crystals
Fingerprints on glass, metal, and other surfaces can be revealed by dusting them with powder. I tried it twice already but it was very hard, so I found this method in my chemistry book.
Position the paper in the beaker like this:
And put a gram of iodine crystals, that should be enough. It was already reacting and making stains. But It stopped, so I turned on the heat. About 10 seconds, vapors are forming quickly. (Becareful, if you wash your hands before touching paper, it’ll not work. Sweaty hands will work. Soap removes all of the oils and salts on the fingers.)
I love the vapors, it looks so beautiful.
Here’s the paper:
I’m actually quite surprised that it worked so well! Definitely better than using powder.
It so clear that you could see it! But I had another idea. What would happen if I sprayed a little bit of cornstarch? Starch will turn iodine into an intense “blue-black” color (iodine-starch reaction). So I added a gram of cornstarch into 20 ml of water and put it in a spray bottle.
It works, but I didn’t spray more because the prints are already clear 🙂
How it works? Very simple. Iodine fuming was the first method to reveal fingerprints on surfaces. As the iodine is heating, purple vapors start to form. The iodine condenses to a solid and sticks fast to oils present in fingerprints, and of course, it reveals the fingerprints.
I hoped you enjoyed. This is now one of my favorite experiments.
Danupon Drake 
very cool. thank you for the post
Thank you so much!
Yes!!! XD
Trying to find the next project…
Now I know how to find out who keeps stealing cookies from the cookie jar… great experiment!
CSI!
I love seeing what you are doing next!
Nice 🙂
Yep, that’s what I do all day 🙂
Thank you so much for visiting!
Thank you so much for visiting!
Very satisfying when experiments work well 🙂
Great results, Dan. I’ve learned something here
What a great experiment!
Definitely! Thank you for commenting and visiting. This experiment is just amazing.
I agree! This is such a cool experiment! 🙂
I am amazed at how well it works on paper – which I thought was quite hard to get a print from.
When we were burgled, the finger print expert wasn’t interested in trying to lift prints from any surfaces other than metal eg a knife.
Just shows you, the old methods still work very well. 🙂
So cool!