New Luminous Material Glows For 12 Years

PhotonBoy

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http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:MPK_Co's_Litroenergy

"GlowPaint glow-in-the-dark paint company, MPK Co., has come up with self-luminous micro particles called Litrospheres™ which they say are inexpensive, non-toxic, and will stay on for 12+ years (half-life point) continuously -- without having to be plugged into any power source."

(image hosted by imgred.com)
Bike_MPK_glowpaint_crop_300.jpg


See also (I found this site slow):

http://www.metaefficient.com/news/new-light-glows-for-12-years.html
 

Ken_McE

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I guess they've come up with a way to make really, really, tiny little tritium filled spheres. Unless they're highly pressurized I think that photo of the bike must be enhanced. Trasers aren't that bright.
 

paulr

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Yes, that sounds like tritium (11.7 year half-life iirc) and there are a bunch of regulations about it, it'll surprise me if they really get to market those things that way.
 

matrixshaman

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They are talking about Radon gas - which I'm just guessing here might be used in conjunction with some traditional glow paint to provide a continous source of energy to illuminate it as opposed to needing regular photons to charge it. Just a guess....
 

hank

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Radon has a half life of just under 4 days (3.8, roughly)
It can't be that.

It has to be tritium. Even though there's some guy at that linked Treehugger page repeating that it's nothing radioactive, the original page for the product says it's a radioactive gas:

"It is a betavoltaic technology, using a radioactive gas"

And there isn't another radioactive beta-emitting gas with that half-life that can be encapsulated safely.

Somewhat safely. No, I would not want this stuff spread around in consumer products by the ton, even at a few ounces per child's toy. Plastic eventually comes apart, unless it's loaded with plasticizers, and those are toxic too.

Weird, some guy claiming to be the [EDIT -- technical representative, not inventor] is all over blogs denying any tritium is used, but-- to quote one of them:

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/flexible-light-source-for-247-lighting/

The patent application clearly states "A self-luminous microsphere as set forth in claim 1, wherein the gas is tritium." (Patent number 20070200074).

EDIT: more here including the names of the inventor and technical representative, and announcement of a January radio interview:

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:MPK_Co's_Litroenergy#Inventor:_Mike_P._Kohnen_II
 
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Newuser01

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no power lighting solution. "Litroenergy"!!

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/flexible-light-source-for-247-lighting/

Now that's what I call great stuff. I'm waiting!!

If we can make flashlights out of this stuff, would be heaven!!


link said:
Litroenergy is a patent pending designed light source material that emits light for 12 plus years- without electricity or sun exposure! The light source is inexpensive, non-toxic, and will stay on for 12+ years (half-life point) continuously without having to be plugged into any power source. This extremely low cost material offers 24/7 light. If produced on a mass scale the product has the potential of saving billion of dollars in energy cost World wide.The fill rate of Litroenergy micro particles in plastic injection molding material or paint is about 20%. The cost to light up 8 ½ x 11 piece of plastic 1/8" thick is about .35 cents.

Regards.:thumbsup:
 

mahoney

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Make of it what you will...

Some years ago (15 or so) I had a long conversation with an inventor who had developed hollow glass microspheres as a possible storage medium for hydrogen in fuel cell powered cars. The principle was as follows. When heated, glass microspheres become slightly porous and small molecules like hydrogen can pass through the walls and become trapped inside. Heat the spheres in high pressure hydrogen to charge, heat them slightly in a low pressure vessel in the car to gradually release hydrogen to run the car, and change out the vessel for one with full microspheres when re-fueling is needed. It would be safer in the event of an accident because even if the low pressure vessel ruptured, most of the high pressure hydrogen would still be trapped in the microspheres, which are fairly hard to crush in any great quantity. He had built enough equipment to prove the concept and was trying to market it at a tradeshow I was attending.

I'm not sure why it never caught on with the fuel cell car makers, but a similiar technology should work with tritium.
 

hank

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I think saw the patent for that process, here, for nuclear fusion fuel: www.freepatentsonline.com/3953617.html

And there's a long history of figuring out ways to trap tritium in little glass and plastic containers, for example
https://www.llnl.gov/etr/pdfs/04_95.1.pdf.

Lots of history: http://books.google.com/books?id=Nu...ts=P8bNB9a7Gq&sig=c7hWCIcIok9rChLWCQoBHj8FdJY


Maybe we can hope this new product is just someone who's gotten hold of a whole lot of surplus nuclear fusion fuel microspheres (grin). Anyone got a really big laser? We could make a really bright flashlight. But it wouldn't be bright very long ...

Back on the mysterious glowing stuff, someone on one of the other blogs observes that the glowing bicycle is used as an illustration of the familiar light-activated glow-in-the-dark paints sold by that site -- it's not a demo of the new stuff.
 
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hank

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> the inventor
Mike P. Kohnen II?
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:MPK_Co's_Litroenergy

> radioactive gas
Anyone got ideas what radioactive gas they might be using besides tritium or krypton-85? And Kr-85 emits mostly beta but some (0.43 percent) gamma, not undetectable.

There's another thread about it here:
http://inventorspot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8532#8532

My guess at the moment is it's either a very successful joke, or a financial scam, and maybe the person doing all the online posting is one of those who got scammed. Some of the posts refere ce a patent for encapsulating tritium, but the guy posting claims no tritium is used. Something important is being left out. The threads have kind of died down recently (new ones like this at CPF do pop up second and third hand). Haven't found anything recent from the people trying to sell it.
 
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Ken_McE

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> the inventor
>Mike P. Kohnen II?

The glopaint.com website says: MPK CO. 602 Clayton Ave. W., Clayton,WI
so that could be him. I agree that the published comments don't add up. I figured that if Mike stopped by he could clear things up.
 

hank

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I hope he stops by and that there's just been a misunderstanding by their marketing/web PR guy about it.

Assuming they're making what the patent describes, they'll have a license for it, watched closely by the NRC. And as long as nobody's burning or otherwise breaching the container, it'd be safe and useful, might be easier to sell in the US than similar products that are easier to break open.

Did they ever say what the spheres are made of?
 

hank

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Their PR guy [EDIT, strike that --hr]

Mike Stark, on the glopaint.com link for 'litroenergy' named as "Engineer/Designer" for the 'litroenergy' product, posted more at the ecofriend page yesterday, but didn't respond to the questions asked.

Now claims 40 watts output continuous for 12 years with no heat.

It's too vague to take seriously, so it's legally okay ('40 watts' measured how, perhaps he means 'incandescent light bulb brightness? equivalent brightness? output obtained from what surface area? or incident light measured at what distance?) -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffery

I hope the inventor of the patent responds with facts.
Extraordinary claims like Mr. Stark is making should have some proof.
 
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Ken_McE

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Re: New Luminous Material Glows For 12 Years - Yeah Right.

I wrote the company about buying some. :takeit: A week's gone by. No answer. :mecry:It's a fake product. :poof: I wondered how they could sell tritium that cheap. :thinking: I don't get why someone would invent such an obscure imaginary product though.:confused:

And Hank, a 40 watt incan would be around 500 lumens. To get that much light out of this imaginary product you'd have to paint an entire room with it, floor, walls, everything.
 
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PhotonWrangler

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Re: New Luminous Material Glows For 12 Years - Yeah Right.

There seems to be a growing trend towards fake or "concept" products these days. I suppose some are motivated to do this to try to impress potential investors with their vaporous wares. Whatever their reason, it's annoying and only wastes everyone's time and resources.
 
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