FR2992007A1 - Device for coloring wall, has gas injection device introducing predetermined quantity of color modulating gas into inlet of duct, so as to put color modulating gas in contact with liquid composition contained in duct - Google Patents

Abstract

The device (1) has a wall formed of a partly translucent material, and a duct (2) formed in the wall, where a liquid composition is contained in the duct and intended to change color upon contact with a color modulating gas. The duct includes an inlet (4) and an outlet (6) for the gas. A gas injection device (10) introduces a predetermined quantity of the gas into the inlet of the duct, so as to put the gas in contact with the liquid composition, where the pressure of the gas allows displacement of a part of the gas within the liquid composition between the inlet and the outlet of the duct. The color modulating gas is selected from one of air, dioxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon, dinitrogen, and mixtures. An independent claim is also included for a method for coloring a wall.

Description

The invention relates to a device having a variable color wall and a method of coloring such a wall.

Devices are known such as lamps or decorative partitions that can successively present several types of colored lights. Such devices operate for example via the use of different color filters or by alternating ignition of bulbs of different colors. However, such known devices require the use of different colored filters or several different color bulbs and do not always have an optimal aesthetic appearance. The invention therefore aims to provide an improved and simplified device having a variable color wall, not requiring the implementation of complex devices to be able to present different colors. The invention also aims at providing a device having a variable color wall whose color can be modified in any desired way. The invention also aims at providing a device having a variable color wall that can be used in any electronic device 20 having a reduced size. To this end, the invention relates to a device having a wall formed of at least partly translucent material, characterized in that it comprises: at least one duct formed in said wall, a liquid composition contained in the duct, adapted to change color in contact with a gas, said color-modulating gas, the duct having at least one inlet of said color-modulating gas in the duct and at least one outlet of said duct color-modulating gas; at least one gas injection device, adapted to introduce a predetermined amount of said staining modulator gas at the inlet of said conduit so as to contact said staining modulator gas with said liquid composition, said predetermined amount of modulating gas colorant having a pressure adapted to allow a displacement of at least a portion of said predetermined amount of gas modulator of colo in the liquid composition, between said color modulator gas inlet in the conduit and said channel color modulator gas outlet. Such a device therefore makes it possible to have a colored wall or the color of which can be modified in a manner, depending on the nature and the amount of coloring gas introduced at the inlet of a duct formed in the wall. Thus, the same device makes it possible to obtain different colors of the wall only as a function of the quantity of coloring gas injected into the duct, which has significant technical and aesthetic advantages. Throughout the text, the term "at least partly translucent material" means any material which at least partly passes the light, that is to say having a non-zero transmittance of light, so as to allow visualization of the light. the color of the liquid composition contained in at least one duct formed in the wall. Throughout the text, "light" refers to any electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength belongs to the spectrum of visible, infrared or ultraviolet. The predetermined quantity of staining modulator gas introduced at the entrance of the conduit must have a pressure greater than the pressure of the liquid composition present in the conduit and such that at least a part of this predetermined quantity of staining modulator gas can be move within the liquid composition to the outlet of the conduit. In this way, a circulation of color-modulating gas bubbles is generated between the inlet and the outlet of the conduit through the liquid composition, the liquid composition not moving between the inlet and the outlet of the conduit but entering in motion only to allow the passage of gas color modulator bubbles.

Advantageously and according to the invention, said predetermined quantity of coloring gas introduced at the inlet of the duct has a pressure of between 3,000 Pa and 20,000 Pa (ie 30 mbar at 200 mbar). The smaller the cross-section of the conduit, the greater the pressure imposed on the predetermined quantity of coloring gas introduced at the inlet of the conduit to be important to allow displacement of this predetermined amount of color-modulating gas, particularly under form of bubbles, from the entrance to the outlet of the conduit. Advantageously and according to the invention, said staining modulator gas is chosen from air, oxygen, carbon dioxide, dinitrogen and their mixtures. Advantageously and according to the invention, said liquid composition comprises at least one dye compound diluted in a solvent, in particular an aqueous solvent. Advantageously and according to the invention, said liquid composition comprises at least one solvent chosen from water, ethanol, methanol and their mixtures. Advantageously and according to the invention, said liquid composition comprises at least one dye compound chosen from color dependent or pH-independent redox indicators. Advantageously and according to the invention, said liquid composition comprises at least one dye compound chosen from resazurin, indigo carmine, methylene blue, their derivatives and their mixtures. Such dye compounds have at least two different chemical forms each having a different color. The staining modulating gas and the coloring compound contained in the liquid composition are selected such that the nature of said staining modulator gas is adapted to cause a change in the color of said coloring compound upon contact with it in the liquid composition. Advantageously and according to the invention, the colored wall is formed of a material at least partly translucent, that is to say a translucent or transparent material. It may be any translucent or transparent material in which conduits may be formed which may contain a liquid composition. Advantageously and according to the invention, said at least partly translucent material forming the wall is chosen from glasses and polymeric materials. Advantageously and according to the invention, said at least partly translucent material forming the wall is chosen from polymethyl methacrylates (such as Plexiglass®), polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS), polypropylenes (PP) and polystyrenes (PS). polycarbonates and mixtures thereof. Advantageously and according to the invention, said duct has a cross section of dimension less than 10 mm, especially less than 5 mm. The duct formed in the wall of a device according to the invention may for example have a square section of 5 mm side. Thus, a device according to the invention may have reduced dimensions and be used in particular in any miniaturized device. However, a device according to the invention may also make it possible to form a colored wall such as glazing of greater or lesser dimensions (for windows or glazed doors, for example) for a dwelling. Each duct formed in the wall may have a section of any shape of constant or variable dimension, for example a circular or square section. Advantageously and according to the invention, said duct has a square section. The conduit of a device according to the invention may have a greater or lesser length. Advantageously and according to the invention, the duct has a section whose dimension is significantly smaller than the longitudinal dimension of the duct, the length of the duct being for example 100 to 20,000 times larger than the duct section. In all cases, the color-modulating gas is intended to pass longitudinally through the liquid composition contained in the conduit between an inlet point of said gas and an outlet of said duct modulating gas. Thus, the color-modulating gas progresses in the liquid composition throughout the conduit so as to allow an optimal contact between the gas 30 and the liquid composition, the liquid composition chemically reacting by changing color through this contact with the gas.

Advantageously and according to the invention, said liquid composition comprises at least one compound chosen from glucose, benzoin and their mixtures. Advantageously and according to the invention, said liquid composition comprises at least one compound selected from sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, ascorbic acid and mixtures thereof. Advantageously and according to the invention, said conduit comprises a plurality of parallel rectilinear portions. Preferably, said parallel rectilinear portions of the same duct are arranged side by side, the end of each of these rectilinear portions being connected to one end of the adjacent line portion, in the manner of a coil. Advantageously and according to the invention, the device comprises a plurality of conduits disposed within the wall. A device according to the invention may, for example, comprise several stages, each stage comprising parallel rectilinear portions of the duct disposed in the same plane, each of these stages being arranged in planes parallel to one another. In addition, a device according to the invention also extends to a lamp such as a compact fluorescent lamp (or compact fluorescent lamp), a neon or a light emitting diode (LED). Thus, advantageously and according to the invention, said wall consists of a wall forming the outer envelope of a lamp. Advantageously and according to the invention, said lamp is chosen from compact fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps, and light-emitting diodes. The invention extends to a method of coloring a wall 25 made of an at least partly translucent material, characterized in that: - at least one duct is formed in said wall, - a suitable liquid composition is chosen in order to change color in contact with a gas, said color-modulating gas, said liquid composition being contained in said conduit; a predetermined quantity of said color-modulating gas is introduced into the conduit so as to bring into contact said modulating gas; staining with said liquid composition, said predetermined amount of color-modulating gas having a pressure adapted to allow a displacement of at least a portion of said predetermined amount of staining-modulating gas, within the liquid composition, between at least one entering a modulating gas into the duct and at least one modulating gas outlet of the duct. Advantageously and according to the invention, a predetermined quantity of said color-modulating gas is introduced into the conduit every 0.1 milliseconds to 60 seconds. The invention also relates to a device and a method characterized in combination by all or some of the characteristics mentioned above or below.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention appear on reading the following description of one of its preferred embodiments given by way of non-limiting example, and which refers to the appended figures in which: FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a device according to the invention, FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a device according to the invention, FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a device according to the invention. the invention, - Figure 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a device according to the invention.

In a first embodiment according to the invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the device 1 according to the invention consists of a glazed wall whose color can be modified. The glazed wall 3 is formed of transparent polymethylmethacrylate making it possible to visualize the color of the liquid composition contained in a duct 2 formed within the wall. The duct 2 comprises 24 parallel rectilinear portions arranged side by side, the end of each of these rectilinear portions being connected to one end of the adjacent line portion, in the manner of a coil. The conduit 2 is divided into two stages arranged one above the other, each stage comprising 12 parallel rectilinear portions of the conduit. The duct 2 thus has a passage 8 connecting the portion of the conduit of the upper stage to the portion of the conduit of the lower stage (only the upper stage being visible in FIG. 1). The wall 3 has for example a length and a width of 6 cm times 6 cm. The duct 2 may have any polygonal section such as circular, hexagonal, square or rectangular, of dimension between 10 and 10 mm. The conduit 2 has for example a constant square section, 5 mm side. The conduit 2 comprises a liquid composition adapted to change color in contact with a gas, said color-modulating gas. The duct has a dye-modulating gas inlet 4 in the duct and a dye-modulating gas output 6 of the duct 2. A gas injection device 10 is disposed at the inlet 4 of the duct so as to enable the duct introducing a predetermined quantity of staining modulator gas at the inlet 4 of the conduit so as to contact the staining modulator gas with the liquid composition. The gas injection device 10 comprises a micro-pump adapted to draw air coming from outside the gas injection device 10, as well as a solenoid valve for controlling the quantity of gas, in one embodiment. occurrence of air, injected at the entrance of the duct. The micro-pump also makes it possible to impose a sufficient pressure to allow at least a portion of the predetermined quantity of color-modulating gas to be displaced between the inlet 4 of the duct and the outlet 6 of the duct 2. The pressure of the coloring gas introduced at the inlet of the conduit is for example 5 000 Pa (50 mbar). In addition, the micro-pump and the solenoid valve allow to introduce a predetermined amount of dye-modulating gas in the form of air bubbles into the liquid composition contained in the conduit. These air bubbles have, for example, in the case of a duct of square section of 5 mm side, an equivalent diameter of the order of 5 mm, and have a spherical or oval shape. A gas / liquid separation membrane (not shown) is disposed at the outlet 6 of the duct 2 so as to allow the evacuation of the residual air which has circulated in the duct 2 while retaining the liquid composition inside the conduit 2. The conduit 2 contains a liquid composition adapted to change color in contact with the modulating gas, the liquid composition comprising at least one colored indicator, such as resazurin, indigo carmine or methylene blue. . The liquid composition contained in the conduit 2 comprises, for example, distilled water and: - 5 mg / l of resazurin, 15 - 10 g / l of glucose, - 4 g / l of sodium hydroxide, and - 1 mg / l of benzoin. When such a liquid composition comprising resazurin as a coloring compound is used, the liquid composition is colorless prior to injection of air into the conduit. When, for example, five air bubbles per second are introduced into the duct, the resazurin oxidizes and renders the liquid composition pink. The wall therefore appears pink as long as the introduction of a sufficient quantity of air at the inlet of the conduit is maintained, the oxygen contained in the air permitting this oxidation of the resazurin. Then, in a second step, if one increases the frequency of injection of air bubbles in the conduit for example to thirty air bubbles per second, the liquid composition takes a purple color. As soon as the air injection is stopped, the composition becomes colorless again thanks to the presence of glucose. Indeed, glucose is oxidized in a basic medium during a slower kinetic chemical reaction than the resazurin oxidation reaction and allows resazurin to return from an oxidized form to a reduced form. The presence of benzoin stabilizes glucose. In a second embodiment according to the invention 5 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the device according to the invention consists of a light-emitting diode or "LED" type lamp. The wall then consists of an outer casing 15 of the lamp having a half-sphere shape inside which is disposed the light-emitting diode producing light. A conduit 11 is formed within the outer casing of the LED 12 by a microgravure process. The casing 15 of the LED 12 is formed of transparent polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) making it possible to visualize the color of the liquid composition contained in a duct 11 formed within the envelope 15. The duct 11 comprises several parallel curved portions between they, in the manner of concentric rings of varying diameters. The conduit 11 is distributed over two stages arranged one above the other. The conduit 11 thus has a passage 13 connecting the portion of the conduit of the inner stage of the LED 12 to the portion of the conduit of the outer stage of the LED 12. Each of the curved portions of the conduit is connected to a neighboring curved portion so as to allow a continuous distribution of the liquid composition in the conduit 11 between the different curved portions of the conduit and between the portion of the conduit of the inner stage to that of the outer stage of the LED. The envelope 15 of the LED 12 may for example be prepared by successive assembly of three complementary parts. A first portion 25 consists of an inner portion of the casing 15 in which are engraved, on the outer side, grooves whose size corresponds to the dimensions of the duct. The inner part of the envelope 15 has for example a thickness of 200 .mu.m. A second part consists of an intermediate part of the envelope 15 in which are engraved, on the outside, grooves whose size corresponds to the dimensions of the duct. This second part is adapted to fit around the first part so as to close said grooves and thus to form the inner stage of the conduit 11. The intermediate portion of the envelope 15 has for example a thickness of 200 .mu.m. Finally, a third external portion of the casing 15, of 100 μm thickness for example, is adapted to fit around the second portion so as to close said grooves and thus to form the outer stage of the duct 11. The different parts forming the envelope 15 of the LED 12 may for example be assembled using an adhesive material. The conduit 11 has for example a constant square section of 100 ium side. The conduit 11 comprises a liquid composition adapted to change color in contact with a gas, said gas modulating color, such as air, oxygen, carbon dioxide or dinitrogen. The duct 11 has an air inlet 14 in the duct and an air outlet 16 of the duct. A gas injection device 10 is disposed at the inlet 4 of the duct so as to allow the introduction of a predetermined quantity of staining modulator gas at the inlet of the duct so as to bring the air into contact with each other. with the liquid composition. The gas injection device 10 comprises a micro-pump adapted to draw air coming from outside the gas injection device 10, as well as a solenoid valve for controlling the quantity of gas, in one embodiment. occurrence of air, injected at the entrance of the duct.

The micro-pump also makes it possible to impose a pressure sufficient to allow a displacement of at least a portion of the predetermined quantity of color-modulating gas between the inlet 14 of the duct 11 and the outlet 16 of the duct. The pressure of the color-coding gas introduced at the inlet 14 of the duct 11 is, for example, 10,000 Pa (100 mbar).

In addition, the micro-pump and the solenoid valve make it possible to introduce a predetermined quantity of air in the form of air bubbles into the liquid composition contained in the conduit. These air bubbles have an equivalent diameter of the order of 100 .mu.m and have a spherical or oval shape.

A gas / liquid separation membrane (not shown) is disposed at the outlet of the conduit so as to allow the evacuation of the residual air circulating in the conduit while retaining the liquid composition within the conduit. The conduit 2 contains a liquid composition adapted to change color in contact with the color-modulating gas, the liquid composition comprising at least one colored indicator, such as resazurin, indigo carmine or methylene blue. The liquid composition contained in the conduit comprises, for example, distilled water and: - 15 mg / l carmine indigo, 10 - 15 g / l glucose, - 6 g / l sodium hydroxide, and - 1.5 mg / Benzoin. When such a liquid composition comprising carmine indigo as a coloring compound is used, prior to injection of air into the conduit the liquid composition is yellow, which corresponds to the reduced form of the dye. When, for example, ten air bubbles are introduced per second into the duct, the indigo carmine oxidizes and renders the liquid composition red. The wall therefore appears red as long as the introduction of a sufficient quantity of air is maintained at the entry of the conduit, the oxygen contained in the air allowing this oxidation of carmine indigo. Then, in a second step, if the frequency of injection of air bubbles into the duct is increased, for example to thirty air bubbles per second, the liquid composition takes on an intense green color, corresponding to a second oxidized form of the carmine indigo (indigo carmine).

As soon as the air injection is stopped, the composition becomes yellow again thanks to the presence of glucose. In fact, the glucose is oxidized in a basic medium during a slower kinetic chemical reaction than the carmin indigo oxidation reaction and allows carmine indigo to return from an oxidized form to its reduced form.

The invention can be the subject of many variants. In particular, a device according to the invention can for example be used

Claims (3)

CLAIMS1 / - Device having a wall (3) formed of a material at least partially translucent, characterized in that it comprises: - at least one conduit (2, 11) formed in said wall, - a liquid composition, contained in the duct, adapted to change color in contact with a gas, said color-modulating gas, the duct having at least one inlet (4) of said color-modulating gas in the duct (2, 11) and at least one outlet (6) said duct modulating gas (2, 11); - at least one gas injection device (10) adapted to introduce a predetermined quantity of said stain-modulating gas at the inlet of said duct so as to contacting said staining modulator gas with said liquid composition, said predetermined amount of staining modulator gas having a pressure adapted to allow displacement of at least a portion of said predetermined amount of modulating gas staining agent, within the liquid composition, between said stain modulator gas inlet in the conduit and said stain modulator gas outlet of the conduit. 2 / - Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said gas modulating coloring is selected from air, oxygen, carbon dioxide, dinitrogen and mixtures thereof. 3 / - Device according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that said liquid composition comprises at least one dye compound selected from resazurin, indigo carmine, methylene blue, their derivatives and mixtures thereof. 4 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said at least partly translucent material forming the wall (3) is selected from glasses and polymeric materials. 5 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said at least partially translucent material forming the wall (3) is selected from polymethyl methacrylates, polydimethylsiloxanes, polypropylenes polystyrenes, polycarbonates and mixtures thereof. 6 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said duct (2, 11) has a cross section of less than 10 mm dimension, especially less than 5 mm. 7 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that said duct (2, 11) has a square section. 8 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that said liquid composition comprises at least one compound 10 selected from glucose, benzoin and mixtures thereof. 9 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that said liquid composition comprises at least one compound selected from sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, ascorbic acid, and mixtures thereof. 10 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said duct (2, 11) comprises a plurality of parallel rectilinear portions. 11 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of conduits disposed within the wall. 12 / - Device according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that said wall consists of a wall forming the outer casing of a lamp. 13 / - Device according to claim 12, characterized in that said lamp is selected from compact fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps and light emitting diodes. 14 / - Method of coloring a wall formed of at least partly translucent material, characterized in that: - a liquid composition adapted to change color is chosen in contact with a gas, said color-modulating gas said liquid composition being contained in said conduit, a predetermined amount of said color-modulating gas is introduced into the conduit so as to contact said color-modulating gas with said liquid composition, said predetermined amount of color-modulating gas having a pressure adapted to allow a displacement of at least a portion of said predetermined amount of color-modulating gas, within the liquid composition, between at least one color-changing gas inlet in the conduit and at least one modulator gas outlet staining of the duct. 15 / - The method of claim 14, wherein a predetermined amount of said color-modulating gas is introduced into the conduit every 0.1 milliseconds to 60 seconds.