Arthur Dent
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Registered: 22-10-2010
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the chemistry of glowsticks
I have a few questions about the chemistry of glowsticks.
I was tempted to post this in "Reagents and Apparatus Acquisition/Readily Available Chemicals Website" since these are potential sources of
interesting chemicals, but i feel this topic deserves its own thread.
I acquired a box-full of glowsticks recently (it was dropped, and some were broken in the fall, so I got it cheap) and I was interested in knowing
what could be useful in these. My first discovery was that the glass tubes in glowsticks can make nice capillary tubes (the small necklace
glowsticks), and can even be used as glass ampoules to store chemicals for the thicker ones.
I know that some of the chemicals used in the manufacture of glowsticks are expensive and hard to synthetize, so if there's a viable solution to
salvage and refine some of the stuff that's in there, it would be worth it since I have a large quantity.
The information available on the net about glowsticks manufacturing is vague at best about the chemistry involved but here's what I know so far...
the outer plastic tube of a glowstick contains hydrogen peroxide the glass tube inside contains a mixture of diphenyl oxalate and an anthracene-based
dye. There is a mention on Wiki about the specific dyes used and the various wavelenght of light emitted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick
But there's contradictory info also, stating in some cases that the H2O2 is in the glass tube, and that there are other chemicals involved.
Ive noticed that the H2O2 that I have gathered from the outer plastic shell of a few glowsticks has a strong solvent smell so I'm sure there something
else in there, but I don't know what. As for the dye-filled tubes, I was tempted to experiment using those in a future project of mine... a dye laser:
http://www.fineartradiography.com/hobbies/lasers/dye/
I'm a member of a popular hobby laserists forum also.
So my questions are:
1) Is there more specific information on the exact chemicals used in these glowsticks?
2) Are the chemicals involved worth the effort of separating them?
3) I've read that some of the dyes used might be carcinogenic, are these compounds dangerous?
4) What's in the peroxide, a stabilizer of some sort? what's the H2O2 concentration?
So if anyone can "shed some light" (pun intended), I would really appreciate.
Robert
--- Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. - Frank Zappa ---
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Fleaker
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You'd be best served to ask NurdRage about this. Visit his youtube channel and subscribe. He goes over how it's done in some detail.
Neither flask nor beaker.
"Kid, you don't even know just what you don't know. "
--The Dark Lord Sauron
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Arthur Dent
National Hazard
Posts: 553
Registered: 22-10-2010
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Mood: entropic
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Thanks!
Indeed, I saw Nurd's excellent video on how to make glowsticks using Diethyl Phthalate, TCPO, Sodium Acetate and the dye, along with H2O2. It explains
in detail how to make the components of a glowstick, and it also confirms the info on wiki about the different dyes and the wavelenght they generate.
But my enquiry is about separating the different chemicals that make up a glowstick. Is it possible? Is it too complicated to bother with? Knowing
that some of the chemicals involved are relatively expensive and other are potentially carcinogenic, I was wondering if it possible to break
down/distill/separate de various reagents to use them for other purposes?
So far, the most useful component in these surplus glowsticks has been the fine glass tubing, but i'd love to be able to do more.
Robert
--- Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. - Frank Zappa ---
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