#university of central florida
New screen coating makes reading in sunlight a lot easier—the secret? Moth eyes
Screens on even the newest phones and tablets can be hard to read outside in bright sunlight. Inspired by the nanostructures found on moth eyes, researchers have developed a new antireflection film that could keep people from having to run to the shade to look at their mobile devices.
The antireflection film exhibits a surface reflection of just .23 percent, much lower than the iPhone’s surface reflection of 4.4 percent, for example. Reflection is the major reason it’s difficult to read a phone screen in bright sunlight, as the strong light reflecting off the screen’s surface washes out the display.
Researchers led by Shin-Tson Wu of the College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida (CREOL), report on their new antireflection coating in Optica, The Optical Society’s journal for high impact research.
“Using our flexible anti-reflection film on smartphones and tablets will make the screen bright and sharp, even when viewed outside,” said Wu. “In addition to exhibiting low reflection, our nature-inspired film is also scratch resistant and self-cleaning, which would protect touch screens from dust and fingerprints.”
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Team tricks solid into acting as liquid
Two scientists at the University of Central Florida have discovered how to get a solid material to act like a liquid without actually turning it into liquid, potentially opening a new world of possibilities for the electronic, optics and computing industries.
When chemistry graduate student Demetrius A. Vazquez-Molina took COF-5, a nano sponge-like, non-flammable manmade material and pressed it into pellets the size of a pinkie nail, he noticed something odd when he looked at its X-ray diffraction pattern. The material’s internal crystal structure arranged in a strange pattern. He took the lab results to his chemistry professor Fernando Uribe-Romo, who suggested he turn the pellets on their side and run the X-ray analysis again.
The result: The crystal structures within the material fell into precise patterns that allow for lithium ions to flow easily - like in a liquid.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society earlier this summer, are significant because a liquid is necessary for some electronics and other energy uses. But using current liquid materials sometimes is problematic.
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Due to the recent events on campus, I felt it was important to point out that the UCF Counseling Center is free to all enrolled students. Some of you may believe that seeing a psychologist is for “crazy” people or even for people with serious problems (which is partially true, although I wouldn’t use the term “crazy” to describe a person in need of help) but seeing a psychologist or counselor is actually great for those who need guidance for passing problems or even to prevent problems from happening too. They are more than willing to help you with anything from dealing with stress to battling depression. But whether or not you felt affected by Sunday night’s incident, it’s a great resource worth taking advantage of and this will most likely be the only time in your life you’ll be able to seek psychological help for free, so why not?
Clickhere for more information about UCF’s Counseling and Psychological Services.
Berkley McGaughey, Bailey Brooks & Brooke Fasciana
University of Central Florida
Zeta Tau Alpha
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