# UV light: Effects on Tritium?



## IMTRBO (Jul 11, 2007)

I notice that in some shops that sell Tritium watches, they display the watches in a case with UV light to illuminate the tritium so that it becomes much brighter, and is visible even with all the ambient light in the shop.

Does anyone know if this has any effect on the Tritium in the watches? Does it reduce the lifespan of the Tritium, or have any other adverse effect?


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## greg_in_canada (Jul 11, 2007)

The UV excites the phosphor that is normally lit by the tritium decay, so it get's brighter but doesn't affect the actual tritium decay rate.

I suppost the phosphor itself could wear out sooner due to the UV but I don't know it would cause a noticable reduction in the life time.

Greg


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## Lunal_Tic (Jul 11, 2007)

My Swiss Army watch uses a UV LED to juice the phosphorescent paint on the dial markings. I don't think it does anything to the Tritium though it might react with the phosphor inside the Tritium tubes.

-LT


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## Led_Blind (Jul 11, 2007)

Ditto Greg, i would be more worried about the phosphor. In theory, if your UV source was strong enought you could destroy the phosphor...doubt if shop lights are any where near this tho.


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## OhMyGosh (Jul 11, 2007)

It depends on the phosphor. It is unlikely it would do any damage. The RGB phosphors on the front of a CRT television get bombarded by an intense electron beam day in and day out and rarely seem to wear out.


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## IMTRBO (Jul 11, 2007)

Hey thanks people, good to know. So it doesn't affect the tritium, and it reacts with the phosphor but shouldn't really wear it out, because it's not super intense UV light.

Now i'm thinking of getting a UV keychain light to use with my watch!! hehe

Hmm.. Kinda defeats the purpose of tritium if I'm also using UV, but it looks so cool... :thumbsup:


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