Description
Dissect, analyze, and explain how glow sticks produce light.
- Learn how to distinguish between chemiluminescence and fluorescence.
- Use glow sticks to observe and understand redox reactions, reaction rates, and exothermic reactions.
- Brighten up your chemistry classroom with the 5 glow stick demonstrations in this kit.
- In the first demo, become familiar with the components and chemicals that make up glow sticks and learn about chemiluminescence and fluorescence. Then, observe a color change that confirms the presence of a reducing agent in the glow stick.
- Manipulating the reaction rate of the glow stick components by varying the temperature and the pH can increase or decrease the intensity of light produced, and students use their understanding of reaction rate mechanisms to explain these results.
- Finally, students observe the increase in temperature that occurs when the reaction rate of an exothermic reaction is increased.
All 5 demonstrations require a total of approximately 15 minutes of preparation and can be performed in approximately 20 minutes.