The Science Of Glow Sticks
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- Опубликовано: 4 мар 2015
- What do fireflies, TVs, neon signs, and glowsticks have in common?
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Hey, it’s me, Lauren. You’ve seen glowsticks before. They bring a festive glow to Halloween trick-or-treating and New Year’s Eve celebrations, and are useful gear for explorers from scuba divers to spelunkers. When you find a bunch of people gathered to party in the dark, at least a few of them will probably be wielding glowsticks. But what the heck are these things? How do they work?”
Glow sticks are powered by a process called chemiluminescence. Don’t let the name scare you - luminescence is just a fancy word for “any emission of light not caused by heating”. We see luminescence in stuff like TVs, neon signs, and fireflies. The chemiluminescence in glowsticks is a pretty simple reaction caused by mixing chemical compounds.
Compounds are made up of different elements bonded together in specific proportions so that they can’t be mechanically separated - it takes a chemical reaction to sort out, for example, the oxygen from the hydrogen in water. When you mix a compound with other stuff, you can set off that reaction. And as the atoms rearrange themselves, they’ll either absorb or release energy.
If you look inside a glowstick, you’ll see that there’s a small glass vial in the tube. This vial typically contains a hydrogen peroxide solution called “the activator”. It’s floating in a solution containing a compound called phenyl oxalate ester and a fluorescent dye.
Still with me? Good.
When you snap a glowstick, the vial breaks, and the hydrogen peroxide reacts with the phenyl oxalate ester, creating two other compounds: phenol and a peroxyacid ester. This peroxyacid stuff is unstable, so it decomposes and produces additional phenol. It also produces a cyclic peroxy compound, which decomposes to carbon dioxide.
This decomposition releases energy to the dye. The electrons in the dye’s atoms jump to a higher level, then fall back down, releasing energy in the form of light. The other chemicals in the fluorescent dye determine the color of this light.
All this happens within moments of snapping and shaking your glowstick. Depending on which compounds are used, the chemical reaction can continue for anywhere from just a few minutes to hours.
Warmer temperatures will accelerate the reaction, making the stick glow brighter but for a shorter amount of time. When it’s cooler, the reaction will slow down, making the light dimmer.
Which means that if you want to preserve your light stick, put it in the freezer overnight -- it won't stop the process, but it will slow it down and drag out the reaction.
So it turns out that there’s some pretty nifty science behind the humble glowstick. Check it out the next time you’re SCUBA diving, partying or… you know. Whatever you do in the dark.
SOURCES:
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Somehow I figured out that leaving a glow stick in the freezer prolongs the light emission. I was probably 6 when I figured this out. Amazing how we used to pick up on things so easily back then. Now we need detailed instructions for everything lol
How long do u put them in for I’ve been trying that for so long
Finally ! Somebody that knows what I'm talking about ! If you want them to last for more than merely a few hours ,all you need to do is to leave them in the freezer for some time.
I love that their formula for water isn’t H2O but HO2 😂
this is kinda great because when i was younger, i always wanted to preserve my glowstick and my parents always told me to stick in the fridge and now i know why!!
Baka
Lol
Shut up fuck otaku
Back in the day when I was a kid in the 80's and 90's I would go into skating rinks and before I would go I would be given a glow stick of my choosing. I chose a blue one. This is one of my favorite memories growing up.
her: "still with me"
me:"no
her"good"
😂😂
I never knew that there was a glass thing in them
I never seen them
doggo you can hear sound like break something in the glowstick
the fuck, i knew there was glas in them, of course.... you break it, but i didn't know the reaction
I knew
@@teatimeboy3240 you deserve the special price for knowing about the glass, heck I just learnt that today :) well done you
1:21 Ouch...
Lil
Lol
ahemmmm.... that looks like something.. wonnder what..
umm hmm... is it what im thinking????????
@SJ Gekht What's your point?
Is their illustration a glowstick or a, uh, um, uh .....
uum,i mean, uh you know....
Dicka
Um uh yeah
I like to call it...
Thingy
It’s a dick, no more chain sorry
soo.... what do u guys do in the dark...
Strangle my monkey😂😂
Jawad Zahid 😏
Lauren Vogelbaum if the gods were good
fuck with 5 bitches ive done before haha
What else than fucking.. and uhh know..... M
Amazing stuff! Really liked the idea.
So basically to sum up 2:40 minutes. There's a thing inside the thing when you snap the thing it reacts and it glows. Cool
I've always loved glow sticks🤗❤
I like glow sticks in the dark. Thanks Lauren!
1:11 haha
I would literally break them open on purpose and splatter them all over my walls to make them glow as a kid and still never knew there’s glass in it😭
*1:19*
*All the bois felt that* 😖😫😵
Great video as always I found this really useful and helpful😊👍👍
1:09 this not a glow stick
Glow dil-
Uh-huh .... right
Whatever it is that you do in the dark...
What could that possibly be?...
Just stop
Please
also fantastic to use when the power goes out. and perfect for those little ones who are afraid of the dark
Are you kidding me? Water has 2 hydrogen molecules and 1 oxygen molecule.....not the other way around...
That's what they diagram showed
calsta619 no, it showed the incorrect version
they fixed it with the annotations
Lucas Dunker it’s drawn correctly, IT’S THE LABLES
Doesn't make it any less wrong
Great video - thanks:)
I love this episode
will glow stick ever run out of glowing (reactants fully reacted ?) like how many times until the stick never lights up even if we break the stick many times over time?
Watching this while poking my cat with a super glow stick😂
That's intriguing
I like Lauren and love her shirt.
Watching with my son who is German and he said "look her name is Bird Tree" lol! Vogelbaum means Bird Tree.
What are the products and reactants of a glow stick?
I just found a glow stick that still works after having it for 8 to 20 years. I just cracked it and it still works. Are glow sticks forever in their life span?
i love her shirt!
sameee
she fucks up the chemical structure for water at 0:43
THAT IS SO COOL YOU MADE ME SOLVE A QUESTION FOR MY DAD!
Dope af
great video.
Ok thank god that there's no radiation because I cut one open
If they contain a hydrogen peroxide solution in the glass vial, won't glowsticks lose their power after a certain amount of time due to the hydrogen peroxide decomposing, even without the vial broken?
who really knows
thanks to tell me this I was putting stick in my freezer 😁
They fucked up the naming of the elements in water they put 1 hydrogen and 2 oxygen bonding together
Great "body language" Vogelbaum !! (does the Vogel tweet?)
Bro I had to watch this for school and the glow sticks example actually make me die
I was playing around with my cat and they didn’t like the glow sticks. It’s like they had a weird smell or look to them that we can’t see or smell. Any answers on this?
This video starts at :24. Reloaded, refreshed, same result.
fun stuff, went to a night golf tornament where these things abounded
Me to Chemistry exams: 0:44
Prof: 🤦♂️
i love it :)
we should go to a party sometime...
Which colour is the brightest?
I feel like we missed a good chance to introduce/revisit stoichiometry as subtitles to the reaction bits.
I have a question. I opened up a glow stick because I was doing a science report on them and I wanted to show the glass tube. In the video, she says the glass tube contains hydrogen peroxide solution and the outer liquid is Phenyl oxalate ester. When i opened mine however, it seemed to be the other way around. the outside liquid was clear ( like hydrogen peroxide) and the glass tube was colored. Is this normal??
Yes! The hydrogen peroxide is dyed, and Phenyl oxalate is naturally clear
I got really high and bought a glow stick from the dollar store and I asked myself why does a glow stick glow
Now i know
Lmao, imagine reading this again from two years ago.
So they will run out if juice and never used again?
1:04 um..... yep, *glowstick*
your a life saver
A life smarter you mean 😝
Danh Le no dude I had a science project due in 2 hours at the time if I failed I would’ve been retained he literally saved my life
Hello, can light aqueous solution of zinc bromide be decomposed using light?
Make up rice
I want to buy, but where do I buy it?
How long do they last
Cool
If once we use it should we throw it??
btw is it bad if you eat it because I crushed it with my teeth when I was LITTLE it tasted bad and it kinda burned my skin but my hands looked cool lol
Imao, same. I use to bite on it as kid.
Wait how much uses are there
Glow Sticks-chemlight
How do plastic materials absorb light
When I grow up, I want to be a glowstick.
does that mean the colour of light emitted is to do with the frequency of the photons when the electrons loose a certain amount on energy?
photon frequency = light colour
It's dyed with things like rubrene and rhodammine b
@@qoisant1015 so what would happen if there was no dye added to the solution what color would it glow
@@maggiemcdowell4240 nothing. The dyes are whats fluorescent
@@qoisant1015 what dye do pink highlighters specifically use
Thankyou
That glow stick lookin a lil sus
What's the compound in smoke machines? It has no smell, barely affects breathing.. so yeah, that.
2:40 send help
I got some of that stuff in mah eyeball lol it buuuuurned
What happend to your eye ?
Do glow in the dark stickers
Never. In My. Life I am snapping a glowstick after one squirted in my eye..
unikatie 15 oof
I don't believe you.
Sounds like you’ve met some rude people...
I have a glow stick and now that I know I can see it
I flushed it down my toilet and I have a glowing red toilet...
Imagine reading your own comment from 3 years ago lol
Rave!!!
Man if my teacher really just learned that for science for chemical vs with the Fahrenheit and Celsius that's just a new thing too about the science book so yeah what is your bestest activity that you expirememt with.
I am using the thumbnail glow sticks xD
They are playing with glow sticks and probably high on mdma 😂
The illustration with the hydrogen and oxygen atoms was backwards, producing HO2.
mama
can i re use the glow stick??
That girl has done some XTC
putting in freezer glow stick recharge?
It won't recharge it, but it will make it last longer.
Can you freeze the reaction?? Then thaw it out at a later date?
Yes, you theoretically can by cooling it down to absolute zero (0°K/-213°C/-460 F).
It's just that no scintist has ever done this, so good luck.
So it’s an isotope that is mildly unstable
Believe it or not- I almost drank a whole glow stick liquid thing inside of it 💀
I opened a glow stick and the glow came out and whenever I turn off my lights it's still there. I ended drinking it and my mouth glows in the dark
ya but whene you snape it does it work
I drank a little bit of glow sticks juice at least I didn't died 😅
What u just said it got up from my mind. And I also forgot English
I swallowed glow stick fluid once LOL
iNeon ØP are ya dead jk
Was it good? 💀
It wasn’t too much. The tube busted and leaked onto my hands, and in the dark I didn’t realize that it hit my lips
@@iNeonGaming okay
It is dangerous if u taste it? Pls notice me
So, in theory, I could carefully remove this vial of hydrogen peroxide for use in other things?
It's really diluted ad there are way better and cheaper sources.
Yea totally, the next time I’m scuba diving like if that’s a normal thing.
1:19 Uhhh...I'm sure that's not a glow stick :/
SUCC da glow penis 😌
Are the radioactove
When i was 7 i snapped it too hard and sprayed it in my old cat's eye
I did the same thing, exept i didn't had a cat and it sprayed into my eyes.
Damn did it go blind?
use full
I remember i took a bite out of one when i was 3 and broke it then instantly regret it
My glow sticks is not glowing after one day how to make it glow again.
Party science? You guys must be fun at parties. lol
Isn't it diphenyl oxalate?
Unrelated: i think you would look better without bangs