Washington, July 4 (ANI): Fraunhofer researchers working with industry partners have developed a coating for panes of glass that lets through more light.
Above all, it promotes the passage through the glass of those wavelengths of light that govern our hormonal balance.
Most people prefer to live in homes that are airy and flooded with light. Nobody likes to spend much time in a dark and dingy room. That's no surprise, since daylight gives us energy and has a major impact on our sense of wellbeing.
Anti-reflective glass that is more transmissive overall to daylight is reserved for certain special applications, such as in glass covers for photovoltaic modules or in glazing for shop windows.
The aim with this kind of glass is to avoid nuisance reflections and to achieve maximum light transmission at the peak emission wavelength of sunlight. This is the wavelength at which the human retina is also most sensitive to light.
"However, our biorhythms are not affected by the wavelengths that brighten a room the most, but rather by blue light," explained graduate engineer Walther Glaubitt, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in W?rzburg.
That is why he and his team have developed glass that is designed to be particularly transmissive to light in the blue part of the spectrum. The secret is a special, long-lasting and barely perceptible inorganic coating that is only 0.1 micrometers thick.
"Nobody's ever made glass like this before. It makes you feel as if the window is permanently open," said Glaubitt.
One reason the glass gives this impression is that it exhibits maximum transmission at wavelengths between 450 and 500 nanometers - which is exactly where the effects of blue light are at their strongest.
Why is it that the blue part of the light spectrum has such an impact on our sense of wellbeing? "There is a nerve connecting the human retina to the hypothalamus, which is the control center for the autonomic nervous system," explained Glaubitt's team colleague Dr. Jorn Probst.
Special receptors sit at the end of the nerve connection, which are sensitive to blue light, converting it into light-and-dark signals and sending these to the area of the brain that functions as our biological clock. There, one of the things these nerve impulses do is regulate melatonin levels. A lack of light leads to high levels of melatonin, which can result in problems sleeping and concentrating, as well as depression and other psychological impairments. Seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter depression, is one possible outcome of unusually high melatonin levels.
"The coating we've developed helps people to feel they can perform better and makes it less likely they will fall ill," stated Probst.
Industrial partner Centrosolar Glas GmbH and Co. KG is responsible for applying the coating to the glass while UNIGLAS GmbH and Co. KG, the company that brought the product to market maturity, handles the remaining finishing work as well as sales. It is about to launch a triple-glazing product featuring this innovative glass, for which a patent is pending, under the name UNIGLAS | VITAL feel-good glass. (ANI)
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