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Registered Member #2901
Joined: Thu Jun 03 2010, 01:25PM
Location:
Posts: 837
I didn't mean to modify the phosphor, just to excite it ... pumping atmospheric discharge electrons through it, more like CRT phosphors than EL phosphors.
PS. is there any place to get small amounts of fluorescent tube phosphors? (Other than scraping out the mercury contaminated stuff from a lamp.)
Registered Member #2099
Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1714
Pinky's Brain wrote ... PS. is there any place to get small amounts of fluorescent tube phosphors? (Other than scraping out the mercury contaminated stuff from a lamp.)
If it had never been in a lamp, what would make it "fluorescent tube phosphor"? Actually, you could get just what you want (in colors, even) from a neon signmaker.
I don't think the stuff brushed from the inside of a fluorescent lamp has enough mercury to worry about, but you shouldn't eat it or get it in your eyes! Earlier this year I added a teaspoon of water to some of that powder in a small Erlenmeyer flask, swirled it around, and boiled it dry to make an impromptu CRT screen along the lines of
Would not hesitate to intentionally vent a small fluorescent lamp, releasing a few mg of mercury vapor outdoors, if an accidentally broken lamp is not handy.
Registered Member #2463
Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
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Posts: 1546
Years ago a demo I made as follows: A 48" fluorescent lamp was carefully broken at each end leaving a portion of the rolled glass for strength. Into this was slid a 30 watt clear germicidal lamp with leads to connect to a balast Powering this tube up made the phosphor glow almost as brightly as when the tube was intact and powered.
Object was to show the 237.5 nM radiation was what made a fluorescent tube work and it didnt have to come from ionized gas and mercury atoms impacting it.
Registered Member #2901
Joined: Thu Jun 03 2010, 01:25PM
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Posts: 837
I think they use mercury mainly because it keeps the striking voltage lower and because xenon is expensive ... but yeah, I know that most of the light is generated from the UV hitting the phosphor.
Registered Member #96
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059
Had some success with "watering down" the conductive silver from the EL kits with "Liquid Poly" plastic welding compound. This is sold for glueing together plastic Airfix (tm) kits but as it contains nearly the same solvents as silver paint, it works fine. Also works for the EL if you use a dried out container and mix it thoroughly. (would a ball bearing work maybe?)
I used Sellotape for the insulator as this seems to work well. Superglue might also work but am concerned that the adhesive would melt when the top contact is applied... Have fun!
On a side note, I did notice something strange when testing a piece of old cpu casing I used to spread the EL and conductive graphite, it "lit up" when i applied voltage at either end. this is unusual, any ideas what might be going on here? all it consisted of was some of that graphite adhesive mixed with RTV, EL paint underneath. I would speculate that somehow conductive pathways between the phosphor particles are forming and applying alternating voltage across them, in contrast with the "normal" capacitor layout. EDIT:- it doesen't light up now, once dry..
Perhaps this may be worth investigating further?
the last picture in this series is of a piece of coated ITO glass being illuminated with UV light.
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Electroluminescence
