Glow sticks, UV paint, and even nature's very own glow worms and fluorescent fish, they all perform the unique and seemingly magical ability to 'glow in the dark' without any apparent power source. So just how do they do it? Well firstly we have to make the distinction between what we would class as glow in the dark, and glowing like a light bulb or flame. As you might have already guessed, light bulbs and flames all emit light as a result of having first produced heat, and this is known as incandescence. With glow in the dark materials the process to produce light does not involve heat and is known as luminescence. Luminescence does not however necessarily mean glow in the dark in the way that glow sticks and fish do, for example modern LED lights are luminescent as the electrical current used to make them emit light does not also cause them to emit heat. In fact there are many different processes that can result in luminescence, from applying pressure, to physical force, to sound, to various chemical reactions. These can all result in light being emitted by a substance. The key sub fields we're really interested in are called Photoluminescence and Chemiluminescence.
Photoluminescence is a process in which light energy or 'Photons' are absorbed by a substance and then re-emitted. Depending on the substance the process of re-emitting the absorbed light can be almost instantaneous, or may occur more slowly over a period of hours or more. Therefore when it comes to paints, glow in the dark toys and other 'passive' items this is the process in question. As far as glow sticks and animals are concerned, chemical processes resulting in the production, or mixture of certain chemicals result in the emission of light energy, and these are examples of Chemiluminescence. With glow sticks this is obviously triggered by the mixing together of 2 chemicals, whilst in animals a chemical process take place at a cellular level, typically when chemicals produced by the organism react with oxygen. So there you have it in a nutshell, the basic principle here is a chemical change in the glowing material resulting from one of a number of different stimuli. Of course it can be hard to understand the real intricacies of how this all works at a molecular level, and to be honest it does all get very complicated! As with many achievements in science and nature, the magic and mystery can be just as impressive as the scientific explanation. For the best uv glow paint, uv glow body paint, best uv glow body paint, buy uv glow paint, uv glow in the dark paint. check us on www.beastbop.com