Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: memoryerase1 on 31/12/2015 23:25:05

Title: Could it be possible to make a solid four inch opaque object at least 2 to 20 ?
Post by: memoryerase1 on 31/12/2015 23:25:05

per cent transparent. As if you were looking through a gas, or slightly murky water.
Can the electrons be effected to stop getting exited, and moving to higher energy bands/shells.
If the frequency of light is not enough to excite the electron it should be possible to see through a solid/opaque object around a few mm right, kind of how glass, water, and gas is transparent
Thank you for your help.

Title: Re: Could it be possible to make a solid four inch opaque object at least 2 to 20 ?
Post by: chiralSPO on 01/01/2016 06:36:31

The easiest way I can think of to do this to have a powder-filled, fibrous or porous material made of a transparent substance. It will appear white because of the many interfaces it has with the surrounding air, but if it is wetted with a liquid that has the same index of refraction, the whole thing will go transparent (or very translucent.)

I have done this before by mistake. Silica gel is a white powder chemists use as a stationary phase for liquid chromatography to purify compounds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_chromatography). When using either toluene or chloroform, which have indices of refraction (1.50 and 1.45 respectively), the column looks liked it dissolved. These refractive indices are very similar to that of silica (1.55), while air is 1.000, so the change in appearance is quite dramatic.

It is also possible to alter the band gap of a material such that it absorbs visible or invisible frequencies of light. There are some systems that are quite reversible (like acid-base indicators or redox switches).

What are you trying to do?