Glowstick reaction: playing with the chemiluminescence of TCPO

The glow stick contains two chemicals and a suitable dye. One of the chemicals is a diaryl oxalate (in this case TCPO, or bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate), the other one is an oxidizer, usually hydrogen peroxide. By mixing the peroxide with the oxalate ester, a chemical reaction takes place, releasing energy that excites the dye, which then relaxes by releasing a photon, emitting light. The color of the emitted light depends on the structure of the dye. During this reaction I used two type of dyes, on of them was Nile Red, what is a quite special, solvatofluorescent dye and perylene what is a polyaromatic hydrocarbon. For more: