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Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED (youtu.be)

submitted 9 months ago by Whirling_Cloudburst@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

204 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

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[–] JATtho@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] heckypecky@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 9 months ago

Handheld battery powered X-ray devices exist and are widely available. I used to work with those. In Germany you need a permit to operate them. https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/de/en/XL2

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.ee 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 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.