led color

[lil_chirps]

what is the yellow coating on a led, my klarus e1 got a hole on the lens and got dirty on inside so i tried cleaning it off but that yellow coating started to peel away. can it be dangerous? should i discontinue use? or is it not necessary?

 

[nbp]

The phosphor layer. That light probably isn't going to work quite right. It may be noticeably dimmer, or have a blotchy beam, or simply not make light based on the level of damage.

 

[defloyd77]

The way white LEDs work is by using a yellow phosphor on a blue LED. White light is essentially a mixture of red, green and blue light. The blue LED excites the phosphor and turns some of the light into yellow light (which is red and green light combined). The result is the blue thatdoesn't get absorbed by the phosphor mixes with the yellow and presto! white light.

I probably did a horrible job explaining that.

 

[DoctorMemory]

I probably did a horrible job explaining that.

No, that is good.

Note that the high CRI LEDs often use a violet LED with an orange phosphor. The LED is of lower efficiency, so this type of high CRI LED will have less lumens than one based on a blue LED.

If you shine a UV light into a white LED, you can usually see the phosphor they are using, its color.