Glow in the dark paint

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Jake Wells
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Glow in the dark paint

Post by Jake Wells »

I doing a project involving a CRT from a television set. I have a vacuum chamber. I wish to bend the electrons using electro magnets. I wish to detect electrons with a phosphor screen but i dont have one.
Would Rustoleum Glow In The Dark paint glow if bombarded by electrons?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaJeLafvdBw
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
― Nikola Tesla
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Carl Willis
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Re: Glow in the dark paint

Post by Carl Willis »

I think a better place for this topic is in the Radiation Detection forum.

Some luminous paints are made with scintillating materials like ZnS. Cheap glow-in-the-dark paint from a hobby store is almost always ZnS in my experience, and so is a decent scintillator for electrons. Unfortunately, this paint's phosphor has dopants that give it a long decay time, unlike TV screen phosphors. The result is that less light is emitted promptly after the energizing event, and more light is emitted over many minutes afterward. Obviously this works well for glow-in-the-dark paint but is not a great property for an electron detector or TV screen. The other problem with paint is that it outgasses horribly in a vacuum. So if you want to direct a beam of electrons on it in an evacuated chamber, you will have to contend with a high gas load. TV screens are painted in a way that avoids gassy substances.

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John Futter
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Re: Glow in the dark paint

Post by John Futter »

Buy some TEM screen re-coating phosphor
usually ZnS: Ag or ZnSe :Ag the Ag is the dopant
usual colour a nice blue or green

Ted Pella or similar will have it
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Rich Feldman
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Re: Glow in the dark paint

Post by Rich Feldman »

I hope you try the GID paint and tell us what happens.

What worked for me was white powder brushed from the inside of a T12 fluorescent lamp.
Made into a slurry with water and left to dry in the bottom of an Erlenmeyer flask.
The layer is very poorly bonded, and can be blown off if the "CRT" is brought up to air too quickly.

With that and a rotary vane pump, in a high school classroom,
we observed magnetic deflection of beam from a primitive cold-cathode e-gun.
Got the idea here: http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/crt/crt6.htm
The author says he made CRT's because "they emit a very intense fun field".
Sounds like lots of amateur scientists on this forum. :-)

You might also try a shard from a broken fluorecent lamp.
Or a broken, uh, CRT. Reminds me of this series by Jeri Ellsworth.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeriellsw ... otostream/
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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Richard Hull
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Re: Glow in the dark paint

Post by Richard Hull »

Fluorescent goodie in most tubes is an activated Calcium Tungstate.

Richard Hull
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George Schmermund
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Re: Glow in the dark paint

Post by George Schmermund »

Anything obvious in high vacuum is probably wrong.
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