Give it a little force, it can take a long time

When we rub our hands, our hands will feel warmth. When we comb on with a plastic comb, our hair will not only fly up by static electricity, but also crack down on our hands. These are the effects of common friction in our lives. However, have we observed the blue flash that sugar blocks were smashed in the dark and tapes were instantly emitted by tearing in the dark?

Mint sugar is glowing when it is crushed (picture source: reference [1])

This object produced by mechanical external forces (such as friction, scraping, impact, compression, grinding, etc.) is called friction/force glow. In fact, as early as 400 years ago, the glowing phenomenon caused by external force stimulation has been observed by humans and recorded in related monographs. However, due to the limited understanding of friction/force glowing at first, and insufficient experimental conditions, the research process of friction/force glowing is extremely slow, so that they cannot be well known for everyone.

This is a simple application of friction/force glowing in the American Indian tribe. The translucent cowhide bag is equipped with crystal pieces in the wave drum, shaking the wave drum, and the crystal pieces shine due to collision. It has not been widely used. (Picture source: wikipedia)

In recent decades, the research of friction/force light emitting has been developed rapidly, especially the friction/force -to -light luminous materials can directly connect the invisible mechanical information applied to the visible emitting signals. Mechanical display and sensing, intelligent wearable, structural health monitoring, intelligent skin and anti -counterfeiting have shown huge application prospects, providing innovative and effective solutions for breaking through wireless, non -contact, distributed mechanics display and sensing technologies Essence

While friction/force glowing brings convenience to social progress, people also put forward higher requirements for its performance. Usually, friction/force glowing is a kind of transient glowing behavior, that is, only when we touch the material, can the friction/force light emitting can be generated. However, there is no doubt that this transient glowing behavior has great limitations, and people cannot achieve continuous lighting and display functions. This is also one of the reasons why friction/force light emitting has slowly developed for a long time.

The friction/force light is only a moment, not lasting (picture source: wikipedia)

Long life friction/force to glow, that is, a phenomenon that can show continuous glow after mechanical mechanical stimulation, is an effective way to solve the problem of friction/force light emitting transient emitting. Researchers introduce a structure called "trap" in the material. It is like a jar that can store energy. As long as these energy tanks are filled in advance, and under the action of mechanical power When you come out, you can produce lasting friction/force. However, such long-lived luminous materials must be processed for a certain period of time before each use (5-20 minutes), which adds great difficulty to actual operation. So, is there a material that can show long -life friction/force glowing without pre -charging?

Recently, researchers at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences innovatively developed a self -charged, long life friction/force to cause luminous materials. This material does not require any preparatory processing before use. Driven by mechanical power, the mechanical energy can be stored directly inside the material. The energy stored energy will be released slowly, thereby showing the long -life friction/force lighting effect.

As long as the material is "shot", it can be on for more than ten seconds. (Picture source: reference [2])

This self -charged and long -lived friction/force to cause luminous materials is an elastic body trait. When researchers prepare it, they only need to use different molds to make it become a variety of shapes. Various patterns. The reason why it needs to be pre -charged is because the "valve" of the "energy storage tank" inside the material has been improved. The mechanical energy applied by the researchers can directly fill the energy in the "energy storage tank". Then these energy will be released slowly, which will generate long life friction/force to glow. Therefore, this material no longer needs to be pre -charged, and it can be used for the material anytime, anywhere, and it can continue to light up for a while. In the future, people can continue to improve the "energy storage tank" structure of the materials. In that case, give the material a little, it can light up for several hours or longer. At that time, human lighting and display no longer need to consume electricity, but use clean energy such as wind and tidal energy in nature in nature, as well as the mechanical energy accompanied by human life and production such as human movement and machine operation. Reductioning and ensuring the happiness index of human life.

In addition to the application of the new generation of lighting and display, the researchers have further realized the long -term, stable storage storage of mechanical mechanical information, and reading anywhere, and read anywhere, and read anywhere in the physical process of self -charging. Essence For example, in life, when transportation such as instrument, equipment or cars collides, we can read the intensity, location, time and other information of the collision from the material, so as to analyze the failure of the instrument, device fixed loss, accident blame, etc. Provide scientific judgment basis.

Produced: Popular Science China

Author: Wang Zhaofeng (Institute of Lanzhou Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Producer: China Science Popularization Expo

references:

, Tian B, LIANG Y, PENG D, WANG Z. Self-Charging Persistent Mechanoluminescence with Mechanics Storage and Visualization Activities [J]. Advanced Science, 2022, 2203249.

The China Science Popularization Expo is the Science Popular Science Platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is sponsored by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Relying on the high -end scientific resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is committed to spreading cutting -edge scientific knowledge and providing fun science and education services.

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