Make Glow Sticks - The Science

We show how to make glow sticks and go through all the chemicals needed as well as how to make different colors. We also talk about the chemistry and scientifically research a proposed mechanism.

To make the glow stick mix together the following:

10mL Diethyl Phthalate (solvent)
3mg of fluorescent dye (see below)
50mg TCPO (see below)
100mg sodium acetate
3mL 30% hydrogen peroxide (add last to start reaction)

The fluorescent dye can be 9,10-bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene for green, Rubrene for yellow, 9,10-diphenylanthracene for blue, and rhodamine B for red.

TCPO is expensive to buy but can be made for much cheaper by following the directions in our previous video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViJknv...

The chemicals, including the ones to make TCPO were purchased from alfa aesar: http://www.alfa.com

The Rhodamine B and Rubrene dyes were instead purchased from sigma Aldrich: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/

The dyes and TCPO are carcinogenic and gloves should be worn when handling them.

The TCPO and sodium acetate amounts can be varied considerably and still obtain good light. Smaller quantities tend to be dimmer and decay faster, while larger quantities last longer.

For those of you higher level individuals that actually do want to know the mechanism for this process, please refer to this article: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/j...

• Category

  Education

[NurdRage]

You took the red pill didn't you?

[aldroydzito]

1:36 - BOOM!

[EminentStar]

I wish my Chem Prof would show us these cool things! although some of the stuff we did the other day was kinda fun......I wish I was good at Chem

[Landau Martin]

yessss

[EminentStar]

and you are a...Chemist?

[DarkGods1000]

where in the world do u get this stuff??



[earl dedam]

Ur amazing!!

[TheCoen312]

the best part is i understand most of this

[Carl Francis Junio]

yes.. what brought guys like you here?

[Marty Doan]

basics of a glow stick?

[Marty Doan]

yeah i didnt understand a **** what he said it was geeksplosion

[wuznotbornyesterda]

It's amazing how this works, but even more amazing how many retards there are watching this that are dumber than rocks.