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: Does anyone know which has a longer half-life?
This answer to the fading problem is not as simple as just knowing the half-life of tritium. Luminova is not an element and therefore cannot have a half-life.
I dunno if Speedies use tritium or not, I thought all radioactive element use for watches was discontinued years ago because of hazards to watch face makers. I had an old Rolex that I put under the geiger counter. (I used to be a science teacher!) It was still a strong beta emitter, but it did NOT glow at all. The face was rather faded and discolored, but it ran well.
Anyway, Tritium is a rare isotope (1 part in 10^18) of hydrogen that has 2 extra neutrons in the nucleus. It's half-life is 12.32 years.
The glowing phenomenon on a tritium-faced watch is a function of SEVERAL things. First of all, the mechanism works like this:
1) The tritium atom releases a beta particle (beta part.= high speed electron)
2) The released beta particle (invis. to naked eye) runs into a phosphorous atom or similar compound.
3) This makes the phosphorous release a VISIBLE LIGHT photon. The face "glows".
The amount of beta particles needed to make this happen is very small. MANY things could cause this hypothetical watch face to stop glowing:
1) Leaching of tritium to atmosphere
2) breakdown or loss of phos.compound
3) loss of adequate amount of beta particles (like how you mention)
...More than you wanted to know...
MMC
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