Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunkle
If you agree with the wiki quote, they are the ones that say "Being an unstable isotope with a half-life of about 12.32 years, tritium loses half its brightness in that period". It is understood that there are two elements here - creating radio-luminescence. The 'glowing' of the watch is credited to the presence of the tritium, and not the other way around. |
Unfortunately you haven't grasped what phosphorescence is.
You need a phosphorescent compound for phosphorescence, which is the light you see emitted. That compound usually has a higher energy / excitable state so that the release of that energy can be seen as light; in the case you're referring to, tritium is used as the source of energy to excite the phosphorescent compound. Tritium itself does not "glow." You're conflating two separate entities. The wiki explains it well, but I suspect there is a science gap here that's creating confusion.
If tritium were phosphorescent, then i'd have to find a way to jimmy our laboratory fluorimetre to figure out a way to measure tritium. But we don't. When we label proteins with tritium, we use the scintillation counter as it is a radioactive compound.
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Edit: didn't read ahead before i typed all this, but ernie explained it well