The article says, "there are currently more than 100,000 different fluorescent dyes available." How can I learn which are the most lightfast?

>Plug-and-Play Optical Materials from Fluorescent Dyes and Macrocycles

https://www.cell.com/chem/fulltext/S2451-9294(20)30310-7

Is this (fluorescent materials) why the lights on laptop power cables now slowly fade out when unplugged, as opposed to suddenly turning off? Just a small question that's been in the back of my mind for awhile.

Probably not. Fluorescence occurs on a nanosecond timescale. Phosphorescence (what's used to make white LEDs) can have timescales on the order of seconds.

What's far more likely is that it's a capacitor discharging.

Thanks for the answer and explaining the difference between the two.

The slow fade is because there is a large electrolytic capacitor in the power supply which retains a small amount of energy when the power supply is unplugged. This slowly drains (depending on circuit) and is why it sometimes take up to a minute to see the LED fade. When repairing or modifying power supplies it is important to be aware that capacitors may still be storing enough energy to cause a shock.

Does that mean we get new kind of lights?

Fluorescence means emitting light after absorbing it- higher fluorescence means that less energy is lost.

Fluorescent lightbulbs drop ultraviolet light down to visible light typically via a phosphor coating. White LEDs are also often phosphor (or similar) based.

Note that in neither of these cases is the phosphor considered a "dye". I suspect that any application of a fluorescent dye on the LED itself would still cause a fairly significant luminosity loss and buildup of heat compared to simply coloring the plastic or glass enclosure that the white LEDs are built into.

I am not a materials scientist or engineer, just a person who likes to wildly speculate on the internet when I don't get enough sleep.

> I am not a materials scientist or engineer, just a person who likes to wildly speculate on the internet when I don't get enough sleep.

I remember a series of science fiction stories where the protagonist would have some problem to solve, get wildly drunk and... the next morning there would be some weird device in his living room. It was the solution, but he would have to untangle what his drunk self came up with.

EDIT: Robots Have No Tails by Henry Kuttner

If you replace wildly drunk with insomnia, then I have to say that that sounds all too familiar :) Thanks for the recommendation!

one note: it is NOT hugo/nebula material, more like old-school pulp scifi. :)

The pictures of glowing things need something for scale.

Hands for scale https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/hires/2020/chemistscrea.jpeg

There are hands underneath the objects in the first picture...