Instant Sunglasses Improved, No More Waiting.
Chemical engineer Jiro Abe, and his colleagues at a university in Japan have been studying light-sensitive materials that are derived from hexaarylbiimidazole (HABI). Hexaarylbiimidazole (HABI) is a material that instantly changes from clear to dark blue when exposed to ultraviolet light , and just as quickly changes back to clear when the light source is removed. They have discovered that in its natural state it is colorless and when ultraviolet light breaks one of the bonds in the molecule, it produces a dark blue appearance. currently this takes ten/s of seconds and sometimes longer. Abe Abe colleagues have found a way to decrease that speed of change from clear to blue and vice verse.
They found that by adding naphthalene to the compound, they could increase speed of the color change to about 180 milliseconds. Adding a compound called cyclophane instead of naphthalene improved the clear-to-blue conversion even more--to about 30 milliseconds. The version of HABI goes back to the original clear state when the light source is removed just as fast as it changes to blue.
This enables Plexiglas or lens like materials to rapidly change from clear to dark, and dark to clear when going indoors. It is also an idea of theirs that it will make a great candidate for future new generation of optical data-storage in which its color on/off ability could substitute for the magnetic on/off switches that underlie today's electronic data-storage devices. The new material photochromics can be used in optical data storage and super cool sunglasses!!
Update:
Yes everyone this does already exist i should have made that clear, but this is a newer version that the transition is a much shorter period of time and less annoying when you go inside and you glasses are still dark. Now they will transition much faster, it now takes only about 30 milliseconds to change. Some were skeptical to this concept, regarding the flickering and if it will affect eye sight while riding motorcycles or bicycles because of the rapid changing from light to dark. It would not affect you while driving because windshields don't let the UV light pass though anyways.
Samantha DeBiasio (Group B week 11)
posted by PWH @ 2:48 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Sam I really like this info with the great weather we've been having! I'll have to search for new shades. I wonder if the constant changing from light to dark effects our seeing in any way. (Doubtful, but still curious!)
Crystal Cabral
Cool. I thought people had these already but not in the blue, or is this a newer-faster version?
[Nathan Beck, Group A]
I am wondering if this is the same as transition glasses or if this is something new. It sounds like a better material because the transitions do not turn all the way clear when they are supposed to. I know lots of people complain that their transition glasses always have a tint to them, whether they are in or outdoors.
Shonneau L.
Nice article. I thought that they already had lenses that change when they were exposed to light. Is this jus the new and improved version? Either way this is a cool discovery. Maybe they can make windows out of this material so I wouldn't need shades any more.
-Alex Pavidapha
Samantha,
These seem really cool! I wonder how much they are. I’ve seen sunglasses like these, but it’s always cool to figure out how they actually work!
Sarah Bello
Are these new sunglasses out yet? I bet they are going to be a bit more expensive than the other ones. This is pretty cool though! Do you think that it can help with anything else? Finally, could you maybe go into more detail about the data storage? This was neat; good job!
-Alyson Paige
Hey Samantha,
I liked your blog. I think it's cool how lenses can change from light to dark or dark to light, but I thought there were already prescription glasses like this. You could use them as sunglasses when you are outside and as normal seeing glasses inside. Do you know anything about this? I'm thinking it's a newer and more revolutionized technology.
Saad Choudhry
Nice article, I wonder how computers would utilize this? Would light need to constantly be shined on the material in order to store data?
Nicholas Skvir, group C
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