The science of glow sticks

I stumbled across this randomly on YouTube today and had to share. The first 3/4 of the video are a chemistry experiment breakdown of what goes into a glow stick and what each of those ingredients is meant to do. But what makes me LOVE it is that, at the end, all of this coalesces into a fine explanation of the difference between light-absorbing dyes and fluorescent dyes. Come for the glow-stick "how to", stay for the better understanding of how light works and how it influences what you see!

Video Link

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: chemistry • how to • light • party science • physics • Science • video

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TimmoWarner

I’m a big fan of all the NurdRage chemistry videos!
nixiebunny

Thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea what was in the glass tube that activated the fluorescent dye. Now I know that it’s the same thing that makes me glow.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

A word of advice regarding glow sticks: never break one open and pour it in your friend’s Mountain Dew.
DewiMorgan

I’ve been wanting edible glowing food for a while. Best I’ve been able to find is fluorescent food :(
Bobsyeruncle

Neat. But why does he sound like a witness for the FBI?
- http://pambamboo.posterous.com/ pambamboo
  
  HAHAHAHA! Or an unevenly slowed down machine recording that gets faster and ssslllooowwweeerrrr……
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

What the artist in me can’t help wondering is, is it possible to mix dyes, or are there other dyes? Also, is it possible to slow the rate of decay by freezing the mixtures? Probably not, and I realize they’ll always decay, but I can’t help wanting to experiment.
JoshP

mind blown… thank you.
phiis161803

What’s with the narrator’s voice? It sounds like it’s been electronically modified down a register. It reminds me of the drama that Jonathan Goldstein of WireTap fame portayed when he lowered his voice to “get ratings.” A great episode!

I hope people don’t feel the need to change their voice just to sound more “authoritative” — that’s just plain silly.
bombjack

Here are my synthesis trials (sorry, partly in German; but with pictures and some links to “English speaking” pages ):
I synthesized TCPO (what is mentioned in a other video of that guy):
http://illumina-chemie.de/bis-(246-trichlorphenyl)-oxalat-(tcpo)-synthese-t3084.html
Later I tried a bigger run
http://illumina-chemie.de/bis-(246-trichlorphenyl)-oxalat-(tcpo)-synthese-t3084-s15.html#46050
where I got a yield of about 47 g of TCPO
I had to invest 125.63 swiss franks (CHF) for the stuff….

A other nice reaction is the chemiluminescence of luminol in alkaline DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) which is here
http://illumina-chemie.de/chemofluoreszens-des-luminol-dmso-naoh-systems-t3116.html
described.

bombjack