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How Glow Sticks Work
by Mrs. Party... Gail Leino
How Glow Sticks
Work...
Glow sticks are fun
party supplies.
When sending out your
party
invitations, think of the interesting Chemistry involved with your
party
favors. Glow sticks work by a chemical reaction called
“chemiluminescence” which causes light to be generated. (That's a trivia
question for some
party games!) By breaking up the word chemiluminescence into 2 parts,
chemi and luminescence we can better understand.
Luminescence is emission of light not caused by a rise in temperature (the
object emitting light stays cold). The light is released by atoms returning
from "excited" (charged) state to normal "ground" state. It means, an
object which glows, first must absorb energy to get into "excited state."
That energy will be released (in form of light) by the object returning to
the ground state of energy. The energy can be supplied in many ways, but in
our particular case of glow sticks the energy is supplied by a chemical
reaction (what makes the "chemi" in chemiluminescence). Typical glow sticks
as chemical reactants use a hydrogen peroxide solution (which is called the
"activator"), a solution of phenyl oxalate ester and a fluorescent dye
(which makes the color). The activator is stored in a thin glass capsule.
When the glass capsule is broken by flexing a glow stick the activator is
released, and mixing the components (shaking the glow stick) initiates the
reaction. Depending on components used, the chemical reaction can last
(glow sticks can glow) from a few minutes to many hours. When using glow
sticks as
party supplies, wait until that last moment to shake them. Heating the
glow sticks(providing extra energy) will speed up the reaction, what will
result in brighter light but will shorten the glow time. The reaction will
slow down in low temperatures the light will dim, but the glow time will be
longer. For any
party theme including
Mardi Gras party,
Luau Party,
Cowboy Hats theme,
Character party, Bridal
Showers, Super
Bowl, Baby Showers,
Wedding or a
holiday
event like Christmas,
Hanukkah or
Halloween
remember to include light sticks and Turn Out the Lights!
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