The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

    • JATth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      30·
      11 months ago

      Maybe not in a flashlight, but the scientific industry would be very pleased with them. Sterilize water and all surfaces in a second? Flash with 200nm light.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        What’s wrong with the current UV tubes? Sure, the smaller ones take about 5-10 W to get the job done, so maybe an LED version would be more efficient. If you’re using UV to keep a massive pool clean, then you’re obviously going to be need more of those bulbs, and they can add up to hundreds of watts quite easily. Is that really a big problem though? Having a pool isn’t cheap, so electricity spent on UV probably isn’t going to be your main concern. Making it cheaper is always welcome, but are UV tubes really that big of a problem?

        • areyouevenreal@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          I mean they aren’t instant and have to be within a fairly short distance of the thing you want to sterilize in order to work because they are absorbed by the air. Something like a pool would be practically impossible as water also absorbs UV and a pool is too big to penetrate all the way through just from the sides or bottom. It only works for drinking water because you pass said water through a tube that must be fairly narrow.

          Oh yeah and an X-ray could sterilize all the way through an object, not just the surface. Very useful for making things like microwave meals.