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Chemistry for Everyone
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Products of Chemistry
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The Chemistry of Optical Discs
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David Birkett
Loctite RD&E, Dublin 24, Ireland
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September 2002
Vol. 79 No. 9
p. 1081
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| Abstract |
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The rapid rise of optical data storage is clearly a triumph for physics, engineering, and information technology, but a great deal of chemical innovation has also been necessary to make this revolution possible. This article explores the polymer and material science that has gone into the development of CDs and DVDs in prerecorded, write-once, and erasable formats, and magneto-optical (MO) discs and the related minidiscs. Prerecorded CDs and DVDs, where the data is stored as a series of pits physically stamped into a plastic disc, have required new optically-clear grades of the base plastic, technically sophisticated UV acrylic adhesives and lacquers, and a detailed understanding of the surface energy and the optical and electrochemical properties of metals in very thin layers. The different recordable formats have all needed new chemistry for the recording layer: cyanine and phthalocyanine dyes for write-once discs, low-melting alloys with a glassy state for erasable discs, and magnetic materials with closely defined Curie temperatures and hysteresis for MO and minidiscs. Even newer optical storage formats, including multilayer fluorescent or holographic discs are under development, and these are already demanding critical inputs by chemists.
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| More Information |
 Citation |
Birkett, David. J. Chem. Educ. 2002 79 1081.
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Keywords |
Industrial Chemistry; Photochemistry; Plastics; Polymer Chemistry; UV–Vis Spectroscopy
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History |
Created:
Last Updated: |
August 12, 2002
March 16, 2005
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