Dragons, unicorns and tritium paint

[ravenhome777]

So, if we know that you can't create "tritium paint" because the moment you put a gas into a paste, the gas would instantly dissolve into the air, then what is this stuff that Rolex was using that we commonly refer to as "tritium paint"? Was tritium even used in the manufacturing process?

We know that they can make tritium tubes, because the tritium gas is captured in the glass tube with phosphorous, and hence the glow. But was there some special recipe that Rolex developed to somehow infuse the gas in the paste?

[Dan S]

My understanding is that "tritium" paint incorporated tritiated polymeric binders and/or resins mixed with the phosphor.

Here is a relevant patent from 1962 that mentions tritiated polyvinyl acetate specifically as well as a tritiated compound that can be incorporated as a plasticizer: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3033797

Other examples of tritiated linear polymers would be polystyrene or polymethylmethacrylate as shown in the figure from this report, where tritium (T) is substituted for a hydrogen atom.
https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCL...1/27001618.pdf

[ravenhome777]

Interesting. Thanks Dan! I'll give this a read.

[linesiders]

Originally Posted by Dan S

My understanding is that "tritium" paint incorporated tritiated polymeric binders and/or resins mixed with the phosphor.

Here is a relevant patent from 1962 that mentions tritiated polyvinyl acetate specifically as well as a tritiated compound that can be incorporated as a plasticizer: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3033797

Other examples of tritiated linear polymers would be polystyrene or polymethylmethacrylate as shown in the figure from this report, where tritium (T) is substituted for a hydrogen atom.
https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCL...1/27001618.pdf

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