Chemiluminescence Lab Report

Investigation of Chemiluminescence

Špela Kunstelj
Wonderwomen
Katarina Culina, Aliea Ramjag, Valeria van Merkerk
CHE/HON 1313 Lab
Dr. Islam
September 19, 2017

Figure 1: Chemiluminescence

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Queens, September 19, 2017Abstract
Chemiluminescence is an important phenomenon that occurs when an excited intermediate is formed from two chemicals, causing the release of some energy in the form of light. This occurrence is important in researching, as it has applications in criminal investigations for detecting bodily fluids or for providing light without electricity. Luminol

Luminol + 2NaOH + O2 → N2 + Na2APA + hv (Formula 1)
This experiment investigates the appropriateness of four solutions that can be used to dissolve luminol and cause chemiluminescence. This will allow for better knowledge of the reaction mechanism shown in Figure 1 and how the activation of luminol is crucial in its chemiluminescent behavior. The independent variable was the luminol solvent (NaOH, HCl, DMSO, H2O2), while the dependent variables where the color and duration of glow. Meanwhile, the luminol and bleach were kept the same throughout the experiment. Through the experiment we wanted to prove the importance of the solvent, as it should cause the oxidation of luminol for it to glow. This was demonstrated by using aqueous solutions of the solvents, where NaOH, DMSO, and H2O2 are known to be oxidizing agents, while HCl is a reducing agent. The hypothesis is that the solvents that are oxidizing agents will cause luminol to glow, while HCl will

This explains why the time of glow in our experiment was very short with an average of 1.57 seconds.
On the other hand, this experiment demonstrated that chemiluminescence of luminol lasts relatively long when using NaOH, where the average time was 38.19 seconds. At the same time, the 38 seconds of glow do not represent a significant length of time if the light is supposed to be used for commercial use.
The results prove that NaOH, DMSO, and H2O2 are good solvents for luminol to allow for chemiluminescence as they all had glow, with the order ranking them from longest to shortest duration of glow. However, HCl was demonstrated to not oxidize the luminol, as the solution did not glow in the end.
The experiment was controlled by assuring that all solvents used were 0.05 M, while the mass of luminol and the concentration of bleach stayed the same throughout. The hypothesis was partially confirmed, as HCl did not cause glow, while the others did, although to varying