Information on Solar Beads
Also known as UV beads, clear solar beads change color when exposed to the sun. More likely to be found in a specialty color-change clothing shop or on the Internet than at your local craft chain, these beads are sold for both educational and artistic uses. They come in the same size as plastic pony beads, which means the two can be mixed to create designs that are still visible indoors. Solar beads are popular accents for club wear, as they also change color under black lights. The beads are not affected by incandescent or fluorescent light.
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How They Work
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Solar beads are photochromic, which means that chemicals embedded in the plastic react with electromagnetic radiation to change state from clear to brightly colored. This is achieved by exposing the beads to UV rays, either from sunlight or from an artificial source. When Richard Hovey filed the patent in 1976, he used silver halide to achieve the reversible photochromic effect in plastics. Silver chloride is another chemical that can be used to achieve the effect, and both are also widely used in photochromic sunglass lenses.
Difference from Other Color-Changing Materials
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Photochromatic pigments are not the same at the thermochromic (heat-sensitive) pigments used in the 1970s to make hypercolor T-shirts, which often lost their ability to change back to the original colors when laundered at too-high heat. They are also different from glow-in-the-dark paints, which are based on phosphorus. Those items will continue to glow long after the light source that excited the electrons in the phosphorus has been extinguished, whereas solar beads fade relatively quickly.
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Educational Uses
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A popular science activity for primary school children is to have each student make a bracelet out of solar beads and wear it outside, then evaluate what happens. Such bracelets are also worn to remind the wearer to apply sunscreen. Experiments proving that it is light exposure, and not heat, causing the effect involve coating the beads with sunscreen. This is also a way to test if an old bottle of sunscreen is still working. Students can also test the effectiveness of different types of sunglasses by holding a few beads cupped in their hand beneath one of the lenses and observing what degree of color change occurs.
Melting Solar Beads
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Solar beads keep their ability to change colors even when baked at 350 degrees, which means they can be used in melted bead art. To make pendants or sun catchers, arrange the beads touching each other in your desired pattern on a cookie sheet lined with foil. For small designs, use a cookie cutter or foil collar to keep the beads from rolling apart. Check the plastic every few minutes, as it can go from melted to scorched in a very short time.
Hidden Message Bracelet
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You can take the color-change bracelet up a notch by applying bead weaving techniques to add a hidden message. If you give an "I Love You" bracelet as a gift to your sweetie at the end of the night, she won't see your message until the next morning. Create a message that reads one way with opaque pony beads, but changes to a different message in the sunlight when the solar beads turn the same color.
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