Nobel Prize for Blue LEDs
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
This Year's Nobel Prize in Physics Was Awarded to Three Japanese Scientists for the Invention of Blue Light-emitting Diodes
"Blue LEDs made possible the white-light LEDs you can buy in a hardware store and put in your house," said H. Frederick Dylla, executive director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland. "You probably have [these LEDs] in your Blu-ray player or the display for your TV or computer screen."
Without blue LEDs, the world wouldn't have backlit smartphones, TV and computer LCD screens, Blu-ray players, many forms of lighting, and countless other technological marvels.
"This is a great example of a [Nobel] prize being given to a very practical application," Dylla told Live Science.
Clean and green
The uses of LEDs don't stop there. The technology is starting to beused for water purification. Currently, purification plants use mercury lamps to kill any microbes in drinking water, but these lamps consume a lot of electricity. By contrast, LED light can purify water directly at the faucet and turn on or off as needed — resulting in huge cost savings, Wetzel said. Only a few companies are working on LED water purification right now, but in a few years, it will be everywhere, he said.
The rise of LED lighting came at a time when people were just starting to be concerned about global warming, Wetzel said. Because of LEDs' energy efficiency, using them for the world's lighting would have "an extreme impact" on society, he added.
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