Scientists created the world's whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning

[dvernb]

The whitest paint in the world has been created in a lab at Purdue University, a paint so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning, scientists say.

The paint has now made it into the Guinness World Records book as the whitest ever made.

So why did the scientists create such a paint? It turns out that breaking a world record wasn't the goal of the researchers: Curbing global warming was.

“When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” said Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, in a statement.

The idea was to make a paint that would reflect sunlight away from a building, researchers said. 

Making this paint really reflective, however, also made it really white, according to Purdue University. The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.

Using this new paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. “That’s more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses,” Ruan said.

Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler. Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80% to 90% of sunlight and can’t make surfaces cooler than their surroundings.

Two features make this paint ultra-white: a very high concentration of a chemical compound called barium sulfate – also used in photo paper and cosmetics – and different particle sizes of barium sulfate in the paint, scientists at Purdue said.

Researchers at Purdue have partnered with a company to put this ultra-white paint on the market, according to a news release. 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us/scientists-created-the-worlds-whitest-paint-it-could-eliminate-the-need-for-air-conditioning/ar-AAOyydl?li=AAggNb9

 

[Kath]

So if you paint the inside of your house with this, you may have to wear sunglasses indoors 😄

[Makara]

would be ideal for Greece as the people all paint there houses white 

[Kath]

When we stayed with my friend (Antonio) in Portugal for a month in 2016, we watched his neighbour repaint his house with white at the top and blue at the bottom 3 feet.  It was a beautiful job he did... sorry I digressed.

[leeuniverse]

The potential issue I see is whether it will be "too reflective"...

Because you can't paint roofs certain colors such as Gold due to their reflective nature and thus interferrence with Pilots of Planes etc.
It's actually against the Law to have highly "reflective" roofs...

[Makara]

On 11/1/2021 at 1:42 AM, leeuniverse said:

The potential issue I see is whether it will be "too reflective"...

Because you can't paint roofs certain colors such as Gold due to their reflective nature and thus interferrence with Pilots of Planes etc.
It's actually against the Law to have highly "reflective" roofs...

in Greece the buildings are traditionally painted white the doors and windows are painted blue and the roofs are either painted in the same shade of blue or they have terracotta coloured roof tiles but there are some exceptions like some islands the houses have different colours like Symi Island