advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Whitest paint ever reflects 98.1% of solar radiation

The blackest paint created by humans is Vantablack, but a new type of paint may be more useful in everyday applications here on Earth.

The so-called whitest paint on Earth has been developed at Purdue University and has been awarded the title by the Guinness World Records organisation.

The paint is created using different sized barium sulfate particles. This chemical compound can reflect sunlight but the efficiency depends on the size of the particle hence the variety of particle sizes used.

Using its formula, researchers at Purdue University were able to achieve a solar reflectance of 96.8 – 98.1 percent during a test that compared this paint to commercial white roofing materials which have 85 percent solar reflectance.

The paint was developed by a team headed up by Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. The goal of the project wasn’t to break a record but rather tackle global warming.

The team says that if you were to paint a roof measuring 1 000 square feet with this paint, you could save as much as 10 kilowatts on cooling.

What we find particularly interesting is that the team believes that if this paint were to be manufactured using similar processes to commercial paints, it could be comparable in price to less reflective paints.

That process appears to be underway according to Purdue University but whether we’ll see it out in the wild remains to be seen.

This paint could help to ease the dependence we have on air conditioners and other cooling solutions that rely on fossil fuels. We do, however, have to wonder what the long-term implications on the environment around houses slathered with paint that reflects solar radiation would be.

While that’s not something mentioned by Purdue University, we suspect studies touching on the potential environmental implications of reflecting that much heat to be published before too long.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement