Physical Shock Induced Triboluminescence for Monitoring of Respirable Crystalline Silica

Abstract

Many studies have tried to determine the exact mechanism for TL. Although a definitive conclusion has not been reached, it is well established that crystalline silica exhibits this unusual property.1,2,3Triboluminescence is, in fact, a relatively common phenomena; some estimates have been made that more than 50% of crystalline materials exhibit TL.2The diversity of materials that exhibit TL introduces the possibility of interferences for this method. However, the spectrum of light emitted during TL is unique even between different types of silica compounds.3By selecting narrow band optical filters, this method can be tuned to monitor only wavelengths in the crystalline silica TL spectrum.