My friend has transition glasses, all I know about them is they transition to dark in the sun. but how do they work? can someone please explain like im 5 years old?
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I dislike how the other replies basically just reformulate that they get dark in light because they get dark in light.
Some chemicals are very stable. Gold, for example. It really takes some effort to make it oxidize, e.g. Aqua Regia, a *very* strong acid, will dissolve gold. On the other end of the spectrum is stuff like lithium, sodium and aluminium. It takes extreme effort to *not* make it oxidize, because it’s so damn reactive. Nevermind using an acid, they’ll happily burst into flame on contact with plain water or even just air!
Silver is balancing riiight inbetween, a little indecisive. You can oxidize/dissolve silver with something like nitric acid, although it’s a quite slow process. Once dissolved, as silver nitrate, it remains a little indecisive. You only need to introduce the tiniest bit of energy via for example a bright light to scare it back into metal again. Silver’s ability to go back and forth between these states with very little energy involved is what photochromic lenses use. I don’t know the exact chemicals used in lenses precisely, but this is the sort of mechanism they use. A bit of energy via UV light forces something into an opaque substance, but once that source is removed it quietly dissolves again.
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