Bright fluorescent materials 3D printed in any shape

摘要

FLUORESCENT materials have been created using a new technique, and they can be 3D printed in any shape you want. It may lead to solar panels that are more efficient. Some 100,000 different dyes are able to fluoresce - or glow under ultraviolet light - because individual molecules in solution are physically distant from each other, says Amar Flood at Indiana University. "But in solids, the particles are closer together and so interfere with each other, which stops them behaving as individuals." Flood says this means materials made using fluorescent dyes, such as fibres for textiles, aren't as fluorescent as the starting solution, which has been a recognised problem in chemistry for 150 years.