How does a glow stick work?

Answer 1

The chemical reaction for this kind of heatless light happens when you mix multiple chemical compounds. When you combine two or more compounds, the atoms may rearrange themselves to form new compounds. Depending on the nature of these compounds, this chemical reaction will cause either a release of energy or absorption of energy.

You activate a glow stick is by bending, and then shaking it. When you bend it, a very fragile glass vial inside of it breaks and releases the chemical inside (hydrogen peroxide) to mix with the other substance (phenyl oxlate ester). When these are combined they go through a chemical reaction (oxidation), which makes a different, unstable chemical, called peroxyacid ester. This new unstable substance decomposes into a different compound, (phenol and a cyclic peroxy compound) and then to carbon dioxide. The energy caused by the decomposition makes the particles in the fluorescent dye move faster and this creates light. The color of the fluorescent dye determines what color the light will be. This process is called chemiluminescence.