Whitest paint in the world-Engineers at Purdue University supersede their self-created ultra-white paint. They engineered the whitest paint in October 2020 and claim that it even chills outbuildings more than air conditioners.
Cooling Power of the whitest paint in the world
Xiulin Ruan is the senior author of the study and also a mechanical engineering professor at Purdue University. He states that “That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses,” There is a reason, engineers have called it the whitest paint in the world because, if it covered nearly 1000 square feet of roof, then it would generate a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. And this in itself is huge. This not only helps cools the rooms and houses but also beats the sun’s infrared heat.
Also Read: Ancient humans were super-predators
What is Vantablack?
The now, known whitest paint in the world reflects nearly 98.1% of the sunlight and creates an extremely cooling effect. This is much more than the previous ultra-white paint that same scientists had created and that could reflect 95.5% of the sunlight. While on the other hand, one of the researchers developed in 2014, was called Vantablack. This is capable of absorbing 99.9% of the visible light. Engineers used calcium carbonate to make the previous ultra-white paint. But for this whitest paint in the world, they experimented with over 100 white materials to zero down to this one.
Formulation of the whitest paint
Barium Sulfate is a white, odorless, and insoluble compound and is also used in contrast media in X-rays. It has various other uses as well in the medical industry such as CT scans and more. So, engineers here used high amounts of barium sulfate to create the whitest paint. Ruan also told BBC, and LiveScience in a concluding statement that, “And we estimate we would only need to paint 1% of the Earth’s surface with this paint — perhaps an area where no people live that is covered in rocks — and that could help fight the climate change trend”.
