How to make realistic fake blood ("Chemical cut" experiment)

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Warning! Substances of this experiment are toxic and highly dangerous for your health. Do not try this at home. Only under professional supervision. This experiment is not included in the MEL Chemistry subscription and is supposed to be conducted only by a professional

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Wear pro­tec­tive glass­es and gloves. Fol­low gen­er­al safe­ty rec­om­men­da­tions. Chem­i­cal ex­per­i­ments must be car­ried out in full com­pli­ance with the leg­is­la­tion of your coun­try.

In the re­ac­tion of potas­si­um thio­cyanate and iron (III) chlo­ride, dark red Fe(SCN)₃ forms, which looks like blood.

Reagents and equip­ment:

* potas­si­um thio­cyanate;
* iron chlo­ride (III);
* dis­tilled wa­ter;
* two beakers;
* cot­ton balls;
* a blunt knife.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Dis­solve sev­er­al grams of potas­si­um thio­cyanate and iron chlo­ride(III) in wa­ter in dif­fer­ent glass­es. Ap­ply a lit­tle potas­si­um thio­cyanate so­lu­tion to the skin. Rub the iron (III) chlo­ride so­lu­tion on the knife. Care­ful­ly, with­out ap­ply­ing force, run the knife along the part of the skin rubbed with the potas­si­um thio­cyanate so­lu­tion – a red mark will ap­pear on your hand which re­sem­bles a bleed­ing cut.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

In the re­ac­tion of potas­si­um thio­cyanate (KSCN) and iron (III) chlo­ride (Fe­Cl₃), dark red iron­thio­cyanate (III) (Fe(SCN)₃) forms:

Fe­Cl₃ + 3KSCN → Fe(SCN)₃ + 3KCl

This re­ac­tion prod­uct is very sim­i­lar to blood in col­or.