Dharamshala, 21st September: According to scientists, the world’s whitest paint was made in a Purdue University lab, a paint so white that it could eventually reduce or perhaps eliminate the need for air conditioning. The paint has now been recognized as the whitest ever created by Guinness World Records. So, why did scientists come up with this paint? The researchers’ purpose, it turns out, was not to set a world record but to slow global warming.
In a statement, Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, stated, “When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind.”
According to the researchers, the goal was to create a paint that would reflect sunlight away from a building. Purdue University claims that making this paint extremely reflecting also made it extremely white. 98.1 percent of solar light is reflected by the paint, which also emits infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with it can be chilled to below the ambient temperature without using electricity.
If this new paint is used to cover a 1,000-square-foot roof, it may provide 10 kilowatts of cooling electricity. “That’s more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses,” Ruan explained. Commercial white paint, on the other hand, tends to warm up rather than cool down. Heat-reflecting paints on the market only reflect 80 percent to 90 percent of sunlight and can’t keep surfaces cooler than their surroundings. A very high quantity of a chemical substance called barium sulfate – commonly used in photo paper and cosmetics – and varied particle sizes of barium sulfate in the paint make this paint ultra-white, according to Purdue experts. According to a news release, Purdue researchers have worked with a firm to bring this ultra-white paint to market.