Some comments from our Facebook Group:
JB: Worth noting: if you want to try this at home, they have to be Wint-o-green lifesavers, not pep-o-mint. The oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate) is fluorescent, and the sugar breaking produces UV light, causing the methyl salicylate to fluoresce. Pep-o-mint lifesavers will produce light, but they do not fluoresce nearly as much so won’t be nearly as bright.
MI: I wasn’t aware that the energy released was in UV. So the visible effect has always been the fluorescence of the oil? Makes it far cooler!
PN: Triboluminescence is a fascinating phenomenon…seems to be a catch all for several different physical effects. Generation of radiation be mechanical disruption of bonds ((as proposed for this example) is one of them (x-rays can be generated by stretching scotch tape as well). There are also mechanisms proposed that involve generation of static electricity and intracrystalline bond manipulation. What i find interesting is that most of the mineralogical examples appear to the eye to have similar spectral characteristics (give off an orange light as I see it). Curious if others see the same thing, or know of examples that deviate from this.
Further reading: