YouTube Description:
We submerge an orange LED into liquid nitrogen which causes the LED to change colour from orange to yellow and towards green.
---
YT comments: he physical property exhibited in this experiment is known as fluorescence thermochromism. As demonstrated in the video, it is caused by a change in temperature. Typically LEDs work by exciting electrons up into a higher energy state, using an applied electric field. When an electron is initially excited, it can cause the molecule to vibrate, releasing energy. This energy is released as heat. The remaining energy in the electron is then converted to light, as a photon is released.
However, if the substance is cooled by liquid nitrogen, the initial energy loss from molecule vibrating is reduced (heat is caused by molecular vibrations). This means that there is now more energy that can be converted to light energy, instead of molecular vibrations. This causes the color change because green light has higher energy than orange light. The energy change is small, a difference of 2.051 electon volts for orange light to 2.192 electron volts for green light, but it is noticeable.
5 Comments
Gutspillersays...Does this mean people in Antarctica have different colored Christmas lights, than what they bought?
Morganthsays...Fry said it best...why is those things?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe1DJdrZrB4
aimpointsays...I think the implications for better energy efficient lights are offset by the cost of keeping nitrogen liquid
chingalerasays...Oh my, it boils with the brilliance of a thousand frozen stars...
messengersays...How long would an LED last in that temperature?
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.