One of our goal in prototypes building was to try them for both arsenic and bacteria detection thanks to fluorescence method. Arsenic detection is in progress. But we stagnate for bacteria because of material needs especially the 280 nm LED cost used in excitation part.
280 nm is the limit wavelength between UV-B (315 – 280 nm) and UV-C (280 – 100 nm). UVs are emitted by the sun but almost all UVs that arrive on earth are UV-A (315 – 400nm). UV-B and -C are filtered by the ozone layer. 280 nm is a wavelength included in a range usually used for medical imagery and protein analysis in laboratory, forensic science (black light used as drug detection), barcode readers or optical scanners and some disinfection technic. We are interested in 280 nm wavelength because it excites the tryptophan and tyrosine at the RecA C-terminal domain of E.coli (Energy transfer of aromatic amino acids in photosystem 2 core antenna complexes CP43 and CP47).
This wavelength is shorter than visible light thus more complex to produce. On the market we find deep UV LEDs that have range included 280 nm. But these LEDs need difficult materials handling and the market share is too small for mass production this is why it is so expansive.
On some sites we found UV LEDs price lists. We have to spend 100 to 400 euros for 265 to 340 nm LED while for 355 to 400 nm LED the price range is less than 1 to 15 euros. Particularly the 280 nm LED are between 100 and 200 euros.
Digikey (an electronic device dealer) has a nice article about today LEDs! They say: “In 2011, LEDs continued to be sold mostly in the UV-A/B spectrum (especially in upper wavelengths, between 365 to 400 nm).” That shows us the small deep UV LED market share.
Therefore we have to abort the bacteria part because of prices, leading time but also because of our project time lasting…
You don’t have to abort your project because of the 280 nm LED price. You may want to try a Chinese DUV LED company for more affordable DUV sources. http://www.qdjason.com
germicidal fluorescent bulbs have existed for as long as fluorescent lamps have been around. they are relatively cheap and high power, and emit over a broad UV-C and UV-B range. if you need a specific wavelength you can use filters. it might be possible to use a CD as a diffraction grating since styrene is transparent in UV, but I’m not sure. UV sterilizers for aquariums are about 30 USD.
a real use for 260nm LED would be for a portable quantitative PCR kit. one still might be able to do it with portable “steripen” fluorescent bulbs used for water purification while camping.
here’s a 10 volt germicidal bulb for under 10 USD:
http://www.bulbtown.com/GTL3_GERMICIDAL_BULB_E17_BASE_p/gtl3.htm
I guess it is a mercury vapor lamp like the G4S11 or GTL3
I wonder why I never found these bulbs before, they’re small, cheap, and low voltage. quite useful!
in below blog said 280nm led will not widely used for the moment:
http://uvcled.blogspot.com/
http://www.sfleds.com 280nm led I found many pictures from they website