Solar jacket charges itself to glow

Nick and Steve Tidball, twin brothers and founders of Vollebak, have created a jacket made from material that can be charged to glow in the dark by exposing it to almost any light source. The Solar Charged Jacket stores light to glow in the dark, and protects from driving rain and winds.

The company, Vollebak, tested its Solar Charged Jacket in a forest in the U.K., where there was as much shade as sun. The tests revealed that a couple hours of charge in daylight can yield up to 12 hours of glow. Since it’s charged fastest by sunlight, the simplest way to charge it is by wearing it outside during the day. But other light sources also work: a lightbulb, headlights or even a cell phone.

The core technology is waterproof membrane, engineered with a phosphorescent compound that rapidly absorbs and stores light, then re-releases that light slowly. The longer it’s charged, and the brighter
the source used, the more energy it will absorb, and the longer and brighter it will glow.

In daylight the jacket is a light gray color; at night, it glows in the green spectrum at around 530 nanometers before fading to silvery green and then white. With the phosphorescence engineered into the membrane, it can’t wash out or rub off. Well suited for almost any type of sport or adventure, day or night, the jacket is lightweight and takes little space for packing. For more information, visit www.vollebak.com.