[BigBrando]

Thank you for the fantastic response, luckychick.

If you have a moment, would you mind answering something for me?

Is calcafluor the only phospher in laundry detergent - or, for lack of the appropriate term, the "active ingredient"? I ask because I can remember a number of college parties where hosts "painted" designs with laundry detergent on their painted walls (cinder block) and have the artwork be visible under black light. How did the laundry detergent bind to the paint on the walls?

Perhaps there was a specific set of conditions present in the basement paint that allowed the phospher to fluoresce - something absent from clay poker chips. Using your answer below, the only guess I have is that there is cellulose in the paint that acts as a thickening agent - and it is this cellulose material that laundry detergent binds to. Chips, apparently, do not have such a material.

In any event, I was using this wall paint experience as the basis for my post. If there is no cellulose in clay poker chips, and there are no other phosphers in laundry detergent, and I rinsed the chips off well - then everything should be fine!

Originally Posted by luckychick

The UV fluorescent substance in laundry detergent is called calcafluor. It binds to cellulose. Cotton is 100% cellulose. In addition to making your clothes glow under UV light, it makes them look a little whiter under visible light.

I doubt there is any cellulose in chips, so the calcafluor shouldn't bind them and glow, as long as you rinse them well. I'm speaking from a theoretical standpoint though, I don't have emperical evidence.

In case you're wondering, a work on cellulose in my Ph.D. We use calcafluor to look at it under the microscope.