Glow sticks are so much fascinating and have become more popular from the last few years. First glow stick was invented in 1977 by Richard Taylor, although a patent package for chemiluminescent material was patented in June 1965 only. Nowadays glow sticks, pipes and clothes are also trending in different dance forms to make their dance more pleasing to the viewers.

But what is the chemistry behind glow sticks? What makes them glow in dark?

Let’s start with what it contains?

A glow stick is simply a plastic tube which has glass vial ( small vessel)  inside it along with two chemicals (reactants). The two chemicals namely are hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and phenyl oxalate ester. 

What we do to activate the glue stick is bent the stick, by doing so the glass vessel breaks. Because of that breakage, the glass vial containing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) releases out and starts reacting with phenyl oxalate ester,  which in turn produces a glow.

In this reaction, energy is released in the form of light without heat. This light is known as chemiluminescence. 


But these glow sticks have a small lifetime, for example, a stick which is shown in the starting can last in  8 to 12 hours only and the stick once activated continues to turn on. A stick of 10 inches can last up to 12 hours.

Wow factor

Guinness Book of records says world’s largest glow stick cracked was  152.5 m long. It took 100 volunteers to activate. It was achieved by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, John Ejnik, Ory Savchuk and Alyssa Fernandez in Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA, on 9 September 2018.
By you and for you
After reading this, now you all know that it contains chemicals especially hydrogen peroxide which is a strong oxidising agent and can cause burns on hand. These chemicals are not only harmful to humans but also to nature. So all these things should not be thrown in water bodies or in open.