A revolutionary new ultra-white paint that looks like the bright stucco used on many buildings on the Cyclades and other Greek islands may one day replace air conditioners, reflecting so much heat back into space.

The paint recently developed by researcher Purdue University reflects an astonishing 98.1% of sunlight, far exceeding the average 10-20% of sunlight reflected by most commercial white paints today.

This new product is very effective and can cool the building to an incredible 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Ruan Xiulin, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, is a co-author of scientific articles about the research results.

He and his colleagues believe that this coating may help combat global warming and reduce our dependence on air conditioners and even electric air exchangers.

According to Purdue University, once the new paint is applied, the surface temperature can be 19 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the surrounding environment. Researchers say that this new paint may even be on the market around next year.

The scientist responsible for this breakthrough discovery came from Purdue University's Department of Mechanical Engineering. They recently published their breakthrough findings in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

The research was co-funded by Purdue University’s Cooling Technology Research Center and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

“Our paint only absorbs 1.9% of sunlight, while commercial paint absorbs 10% to 20% of sunlight," Ruan explains.

Contrary to intuition, even white paint will actually absorb the sun's light and heat instead of reflecting most of the light and heat back into the sky. On sunny days, even white paint can heat up, making it harder to keep indoor spaces cool.

Ruan said that even the whitest white paint on the commercial market today can reflect up to 80-90% of light.

The new Purdue coating not only reflects almost all the sun's rays back into space, but also emits infrared heat from the surface of the building, which is equivalent to an average cooling power of 113 watts per square meter (10.7 square feet).

Researchers say that when paint is applied to the roof of a building, this translates into powerful savings.

On the roof of a 1,000-square-foot house, this means that the paint will generate 10 kilowatts of cooling power-Ruan said, this is more powerful than most residential central air conditioners.

In hot Indiana, researchers tested the new paint on the Purdue University campus building on a sunny noon, and proved that the paint made the outdoor temperature 8 degrees lower than the ambient temperature at the time.

However, it was at night that the revolutionary performance of the paint came to the fore, when they discovered that it caused the surface to remain 19 degrees lower than the surrounding environment.

"Our paint can dissipate heat through its own radiation-it will radiate heat into deep space," Ruan Xiang explained to Smithsonian Magazine.

"Because of so little absorption of the sun, our paint loses more heat than it absorbs. This is really exciting for us. In the sun, it will cool to below the ambient temperature, which is difficult Achieved."

The video produced by the team using an infrared camera accurately shows how much the paint cools on its surface. The whitest part of all white paint is represented by the dark purple square in the middle, indicating its cool temperature.

Naturally, commercially available white paints, even those sold as heat dissipation products, are cooler than dark paints, but they are still made of titanium dioxide, which absorbs the sun’s ultraviolet rays, causing any surface on which they are used to heat up.

"Commercial white paints are cooler than other darker paints, but they are still hotter than the environment or the surrounding temperature," Ruan points out.

Researchers are naturally reluctant to try to use materials that reflect rather than absorb brutal ultraviolet rays. After testing more than 100 different materials in the past seven years, they finally found barium sulfate after finding that calcium carbonate reflects an astonishing 95.5% of the sun's rays.

Barium sulfate is more effective than calcium carbonate. This substance has been used in cosmetics and photographic paper, and is produced by reacting barium hydroxide and other barium sources with sulfuric acid.

Ruan and other researchers took two further steps to enhance the reflectivity of the paint. The concentration of barium sulfate particles used was 6 times that of most heat-resistant paints on the market. They also used barium particles of different sizes in the mixture.

"We found that if you add different particle sizes to the paint, each particle size will scatter and reflect different wavelengths, and together they reflect the entire wavelength spectrum of sunlight," Ruan said.

The new paint is truly revolutionary, not just because it can significantly reduce the need for air conditioning.

When using air conditioners, they just take away the heat and humidity in the room, and then transfer it to the outdoors, thereby improving the overall heat dissipation effect of the city or town.

In addition, of course, the use of paint will reduce the need for electricity and/or fossil fuels for air conditioning.

The researchers said that the type of electromagnetic waves emitted from the surface of the ultra-white paint can pass through the atmosphere and return to deep space.

"Air conditioners can cool your house, but they transfer heat from the inside of the house to the outside-the heat still exists in the city, it still exists on the earth, it exists in our air," Ruan said.

"So even if you don’t care about the electricity bills you pay, it will warm the earth anyway. Our paint does not use any electricity, but more importantly, it transmits heat to space. The heat does not stay on the earth, so This really helps the planet cool down and stops the warming trend."

According to researchers at Purdue University, their ultra-white paint can reduce air conditioning in desert cities by as much as 70%, such as Reno, Nevada and Phoenix, Arizona.

Taking the experiment to the extreme, they inferred that if they could cover 0.5% to 1% of the earth's surface with ultra-white paint-including buildings, roads, unused land, etc.-it would be enough to prevent global warming.

"It's a large area, but if one day we need to use this method to help reverse the warming trend, it will still be affordable-paint is not expensive," Ruan declared.

Scientists at Purdue University have applied for a patent for this ultra-white paint and are committed to determining its durability in residential and commercial use.

Price shouldn’t be a problem, Ruan said. Now the cost of a gallon is almost exactly the same as the cost of a gallon of regular paint, about $30 to $40 per gallon.

Elizabeth Thompson, vice president of the US Green Building Council, is fascinated by the future prospects of this coating.

"When I first heard about it, I was imagining,'Wow, this can be used for various different urban conditions in the U.S. and internationally,"' she said.

"It is this potential that is so powerful and compelling. It is great to see how this has evolved and how researchers can develop its applications."

The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit organization that has developed a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system for sustainable buildings. It now provides "heat island reduction points" for buildings whose owners are striving to achieve LEED certification.

According to Thompson, the new ultra-white paint is a game changer in this area.

Thompson said that using materials with an initial solar reflectance of 33% at installation or 28% within three years is one way homeowners are currently trying to make their buildings more energy efficient. Purdue Coatings' 98.1% solar reflectance fully meets these requirements.

"This is just a completely different cooling court, very exciting," Thompson declared.

"This is hopeful. This is something we all hope scientists and researchers will help us discover. We don't know how there is an opportunity to live more sustainably."

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