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What is in Glow Sticks?

Glow sticks and related items, like glow necklaces, are popular novelty items often sold at fairs and other festive occasions. They are often also used at Halloween to make it safer for kids to go trick-or-treating after dark, or as part of a costume or decoration. Most people are familiar with how to make glow sticks work--bend it until you feel a small pop--but they may not understand how they work.

Basics
- A chemical reaction is what makes glow sticks glow. The user starts that chemical reaction by popping the small glass tube inside of the glow stick, allowing the two chemicals to mix and react in what is known as chemiluminesence. The glow fades over time as the chemicals stop reacting to one another.
Ingredients
- The ingredients in most glow sticks are phenal oxalate ester mixed with fluorescent dye, which gives the glow product its color, and hydrogen peroxide. The phenal oxalate ester is the liquid inside the tube and the hydrogen peroxide is in the small glass tube that the user breaks to activate the product. The company GlowProducts.com lists its full ingredients list as: 4 g sodium carbonate, 0.2 g luminol, 0.5 g ammonium carbonate, 0.4 g copper sulfate pentahydrate, approximately 1 liter of distilled water, and 50 ml of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide.
Science
- Chemiluminesence is a reaction between chemicals that causes electrons to rise to a higher energy level. Similar to the way that some other chemical reactions produce heat, in a chemiluminescent reaction, the electrons release the excess energy in the form of light.
Controlling the Reaction
- You can speed or slow the chemical reaction in a glow stick by adjusting the heat it is exposed to. Warm temperatures will speed up the reaction, making the glow more intense but causing it to fade faster. You can prolong the life of a glow stick, at least by a few hours, by placing it in a freezer. The cold air slows, but does not stop, the chemical reaction.
Safety
- Although the products should not be intentionally ingested, the chemicals in most glow sticks are considered non-toxic and should not cause serious health effects unless they cause an allergic reaction. The liquid can stain clothing, however.

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