Re: NEON- Phosphor Binder

To: neon-l@lists.io.com
Subject: Re: NEON- Phosphor Binder
From: neonthom@earthlink.net (Tom U)
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 04:23:21 -0800 (PST)
Reply-To: neon-l@lists.io.com
Sender: owner-neon-l@io.com

I'll yield to Marcus here, but am even more confused.  The names on the
bottles sure seemed to match "phosphorous" & "alcohol."  Is someone selling
this pre-mixed here in the States?

Tom U.

>Hey Frank and Tom,
>
>NO, please don't take pure phosphorous, either the white, red or black!
>
>What we (the Europies) use to adhere the luminous powder (also called
>phosphor) to the
>inner side of the tube is mostly a mixture of
>15 vol % concentrated orthophosphoric acid (H3PO4) of 68% content
>85 vol % methanol or ethanol (C2H5OH, well known formula...)
>
>The mixture will get hot during preparation, because the alcohol forms
>esters (should be C2H7PO4 + H2O, but not sure at the moment).
>So the binder is a mixture of orthophosphoric methyl ester, remaining
>orthophosphoric acid and suplus alcohol.
>What happens when this comes to the glass: The acid will etch the surface,
>The alcohol is for regular distribution and solving the rest of water for
>co-evaporation, and the ester does the binding when the powder is applied.
>
>(The exact chemistry is much complicated, but this seems this is enough for
>understanding the main mixture)
>
>Marcus

Follow-Ups:

Re: NEON- Phosphor Binder

From: marcus@ttphysik.uni-duisburg.de (Marcus Thielen)