Just a few months ago, I was arguing with my mother about how chemistry is pretty much everywhere and no one seems to appreciate it. People do not get curious about how we are always using chemistry. It is like if people give for granted that things are the way they are because it is just the way it is. I have listened to the same phrase over and over again every time that I take a chemistry class, “why should we even have to take chemistry? It is not like I am using it every day!” The truth is chemistry is everywhere. Chemistry is even in the smallest and insignificant things like the glow sticks. How they work? What makes them glow? How is chemistry present in them?
Glow sticks have plenty of uses. They are used for camping, diving, as a decoration, or just for fun. The only thing that needs to be done in order to make them glow is bend them. But there is something more deeply than just bending the glow stick. These glow sticks involve chemical reactions. The reaction of these chemicals causes a constant release of energy. Atoms in the materials are stimulated, causing electrons to get a higher energy level and then return to their normal levels. When they do this, they release energy as light. This process is better known as chemiluminesence (Harris, 2015).
Moreover, light emitting …show more content…
The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the phenyl oxalate ester to form phenol and an unstable peroxyacid ester. The unstable peroxyacid ester decomposes, resulting in phenol and cyclic peroxy compound. The cyclic peroxy compound decomposes to carbon dioxide (Helmenstine, 2015). This decomposition reaction releases the energy that excites the dye and the electrons in the dye atoms jump to a higher level, and then fall back down, releasing energy in the form of light (Harris, 2015). The glow stick reaction has the potential to provide as much excitation energy as a UV photon with a wavelength of 307nm (Kuntzleman et al.,