A new generation of top-performing inorganic phosphorescent pigments

In the era of renewable technologies and with our focus on sustainability, LumiNova® is a new generation of phosphorescent pigments that optimize daylight for potentially unlimited cycles of use. LumiNova® pigments are dispersible in different carriers and their chemical and physical stability provides excellent long-term performance. This class of photoluminescent pigments gives many unexpected objects of our daily life functional and aesthetical features with decay times up to many dozens of hours.

Inside the group of photoluminescent materials some very special molecules give an effect called fluorescence when impacted by light. They adsorb and re-emit light with a certain delay in a different wavelength. When the timelapse between adsorption and emission is quick, e.g. over milliseconds or less, we commonly refer to the effect as fluorescence; when the timelapse is longer, e.g. over many hours, we refer to the effect as phosphorescence. The quantomechanic explication of the two phenomena is complex and is not reported in this article.

Phosphorescent materials can be organic, inorganic or metalorganic. Inorganic materials are the most widely used in industrial applications due to their flexibility and versatility. This class of materials are inorganic salts (sulphides, aluminates, silicates, or others) doped with ions f rare earths or transition metals in the form of crystal powders. It is fundamental to highlight that phosphorescence is not a nuclear process, thus it does not involve the production of dangerous radiation.