New ultra-white material seems like magic. It reflects 95.5 of all incoming sunlight. That makes it much cooler than any material around it even if the Sun is shining super bright.
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In recent years we marveled at many different ultra-black colors made from carbon nanotubes. These can absorb practically all visible wavelengths making them darker than the depths of hell. And at the same time, they offer various interesting uses. But now, new research coming from Purdue University comes with the polar opposite – ultra-white color. And it too is worth it.
Xiulin Ruan and his colleagues developed a new material that can reflect an incredible 95.5 percent of sunlight. Currently, the best colors capable of reflecting 80 to 90 percent of sunlight. The new color from Purdue is not only ultra-white but also ultra-cool – literally. Thanks to its extreme reflectivity a surface covered by this color can remain up to 10 degrees cooler than its surroundings even if under direct sunlight. It’s like magic.
It could actually be a nice trick against global warming. If we managed to create a large amount of this color at a reasonable price and cover many surfaces with it – including roofs, roads, or cars – such a color could significantly cool down these Earth as the solar radiation would get reflected back into space, reducing the amount of heat on our planet.
As the researchers say, developing the ultra-white color was not easy. The first attempts can be traced back to the seventies. Ruan’s team added six years of research in which they look at over 100 different combinations of materials. After initial research, they narrowed it down to 10 materials and tried about 50 different recipes on them. In the end, they succeeded with a recipe based on the very common and well known Calcium carbonate. Using it itself gave the scientists an advantage because Calcium carbonate practically doesn’t absorb the ultra-violet part of sunlight.
Ruan and his colleagues wanted to make sure that their ultra-white color can find practical applications. Currently, they estimate that this color will be cheaper than its commercially available alternatives. Plus, using it could also save large amounts of money and energy normally used for air conditioning.
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