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Australian researchers say they invented a cheap, ink-like product that could be used to make portable solar panels to tell people when they have too much.
The team said that the ink gradually darkens when it is exposed to ultraviolet rays and works when it is written on paper that could be used to make, for example, , a bracelet.
"You can print it on anything – paper, plastic or whatever," NBC News Vipul Bansal, a professor of applied chemistry at the RMIT Australian University in Melbourne, told NBC News.
"We can print our ink on any paper surface to produce inexpensive portable sensors in the form of bracelets, headbands or stickers, for example.
The ink is based on a compound called polyoxometalate. Combined with other compounds, it creates a clear product that becomes darker blue when exposed to ultraviolet radiation.
It becomes blue faster when it is exposed to UVB, the most damaging radiation type, and more slowly in response to UVA, which takes longer to do its damage, reported the team on Tuesday. in the journal Nature Communications.
Bansal and his team created paper bracelets that people could wear to warn them of sun exposure long before symptoms of sunburn began to be felt.
And it is possible to customize the sensors for different skin types, using a filter.
"We have found that easily available, inexpensive transparent films can actually serve as ideal UV filters for this purpose," the team wrote.
The paper could be laminated to make it waterproof and sweat resistant, said Bansal.
Bansal has personal reasons for research. "I have struggled for many years to manage my vitamin D levels," he said. His levels are low even when he takes supplements.
The sun makes the skin naturally produce vitamin D, but it can be difficult to know when you have received enough sun and when you have received too much sun, said Bansal.
Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world and the UV index is part of daily weather reports, but the UV index is a unique forecast. It does not take into account the complexion, the nuance and other factors.
A wearable device would allow people to customize their UV exposure, he said.
It could also be useful in colder climates.
"People do not understand that UV light is not hot. The amount of sun you feel has nothing to do with the intensity of the sun or the heat of the sun, "said Bansal.
His team is currently working on the manufacture of a commercial product. Currently, making a sensor costs around 3 cents, he said. "It should be affordable for the vast majority of the population," said Bansal.
Such a device could also be useful for people working around devices generating ultraviolet C-rays. These rays are filtered by the sun's atmosphere but are extremely toxic. UVC devices are used to kill germs in laboratories and other areas, but they must be placed in such a way that the rays do not fall on people's skin.
Skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
One in five Americans will develop skin cancer at the age of 70. In Australia, 2 out of 3 people will develop at least one form of skin cancer.
In the United States, 3.3 million Americans are diagnosed each year with basal or squamous skin cancer, none of which is particularly lethal if treated on time. Melanoma accounts for about 1% of all skin cancers, but it is much more deadly. It kills more than 9,000 people a year in the United States.
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