Glowmatography

The exocharmic glow of chemiluminescent lightsticks captivates students of all ages. The chemistry behind lightsticks is used to convincingly teach the practice and theory of chromatography. In extension to the chromatographic procedure described, dye(s) collected in the eluate during the chromatographic process are analyzed using absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. Thus, the mystery of the lightstick becomes a useful introduction to undergraduate topics such as chromatography, intermolecular forces, electronic absorption and emission spectroscopy, and catalysis. The parsing out of such an information rich system allows the instructor to adopt this demonstration or laboratory to the chemical education level and chemical discipline of the educational audience.