Thursday, August 4, 2011

What is the Working Mechanism of Glow Sticks?

Having fun in dark is possible by the use of glow sticks. They are the best items for recreational purposes. You might have seen people using different forms of glow sticks like glow necklaces, glow bracelets, glow earrings, glow rings and so on. People of all ages including kids, adults and teens love to use glow sticks at night parties. Apart from the recreational and entertainment purposes, they are even used for emergency and safety purposes.

A glow stick is a plastic tube containing a glass vial. The glass vial contains one chemical compound and the plastic tube has another chemical. When you bend the plastic tube, the glass vial inside it breaks combining the two chemicals. A chemical reaction between them releases energy in the form of light. This process is termed as chemiluminescence.

Glow sticks generally contains three different chemicals. Two of them are responsible for the chemiluminescent reaction and the other one is generally a fluorescent dye which imparts color to the glow. The color of the glow sticks, therefore, depends on the color of the fluorescent dye. The energy released by the reaction of the two chemicals excite the electrons in the fluorescent dye. This makes the electrons to jump to the higher energy level. When they fall back down, they release light. Hydrogen peroxide and phenyl oxalate ester are the two chemical compounds used most commonly in glow sticks. The former chemical oxidizes the latter one resulting in a chemical called phenol and an unstable peroxy acid ester. This unstable compound further decomposes to form phenol and a cyclic peroxy compound. When the cyclic compound decomposes to carbon dioxide, the energy released makes the electrons of the fluorescent dye to jump to higher level. Then they fallback giving light. This is the chemical reaction behind the colorful glow sticks which you enjoy in night parties. 


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Glow sticks

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