Why Do Lightsticks Glow

Few of us recognize that the fascinating glow of a lightstick at a carnival or fair arises from a complex series of chemical reactions. The chemist s palette—a variety of ingredients with specific chemical structures — produces the rainbow of colors seen in these novelties. 

The release of energy to the dye molecule or fluorescer is driven by the conformational instability of the C2O4 intermediate (the flat highly strained C2O4 prefers to be two linear CO2 molecules). The sensitized fluorescer, denoted fluorescer, returns to the ground state via the emission of light  

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