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

  • JATth@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    5 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·
      5 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. Sure, making it cheaper is always welcome, but are UV tubes really that big of a problem?

      • areyouevenreal@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        5 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.