How do you identify the phosphor used in Black Lights?
The package/etch for the tubes doesn't help, and are there any ways to specifically know what is used on the Philips black light F15T8s?

There're the BLB lamps (the deep purple ones; they used to be made with woods glass, now it's an enamel coat over the glass) and then the uv phosphor ones used in bug zappers and also some rock fluorescent analyses.
Also the clear ones (not really black lites) used in germ bulbs.

There're the BLB lamps (the deep purple ones; they used to be made with woods glass, now it's an enamel coat over the glass) and then the uv phosphor ones used in bug zappers and also some rock fluorescent analyses.
Also the clear ones (not really black lites) used in germ bulbs.

No, I'm talking about BLB, there are several phosphors used in those, and I want to know how to identify the phosphors used in them.

Quote from: Solanaceae on July 09, 2016, 03:16:28 PM

There're the BLB lamps (the deep purple ones; they used to be made with woods glass, now it's an enamel coat over the glass) and then the uv phosphor ones used in bug zappers and also some rock fluorescent analyses.
Also the clear ones (not really black lites) used in germ bulbs.

No, I'm talking about BLB, there are several phosphors used in those, and I want to know how to identify the phosphors used in them.

I'm pretty sure they are all the same phosphor

Quote from: wattMaster on July 09, 2016, 03:32:04 PM

Quote from: Solanaceae on July 09, 2016, 03:16:28 PM

There're the BLB lamps (the deep purple ones; they used to be made with woods glass, now it's an enamel coat over the glass) and then the uv phosphor ones used in bug zappers and also some rock fluorescent analyses.
Also the clear ones (not really black lites) used in germ bulbs.

No, I'm talking about BLB, there are several phosphors used in those, and I want to know how to identify the phosphors used in them.

I'm pretty sure they are all the same phosphor

There's at least two of them, with different compositions, I think.

I know about at least two general types of UV fluorescent phosphors:
One type generates just the long wave UVA and is used in BL and BLB (the BLB has an extra filter blocking all the visible coming directly from the mercury discharge itself).
Then are the tanning bed types, generating shorter wave UVB as well.

And within each category, the actual compositions may vary among evolution and manufacturers as well.
I would guess an accurate spectral analysis may tell way more, similar as with the visible. Maybe with the BLB it would require to peel off some of the filter coat (in the recent years, the fluorescents do not use a real Woods glass, but actually just a common glass and the filter is then in the form of lacquer applied onto the tube; one of the reasons is the difficulty to work with the way more fragile Woods glass, it's cost and recently the fact the composition of the Woods glass does not meet the ROHS directive)

Diffract the light with a prism and project on a Fluorescent screen ?

Diffract the light with a prism and project on a Fluorescent screen ?

Problem is, all of the spectrometers we can affordably use are not accurate enough to identify the phosphor.