This world’s whitest paint can be more powerful than an AC, say scientists

The whitest paint in the world created in a lab at Purdue University has now made it into the Guinness World Records. Yes, the paint is so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning, scientists say. When quizzed about the reason behind the creation of the whitest paint, […]

The whitest paint in the world created in a lab at Purdue University has now made it into the Guinness World Records. Yes, the paint is so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning, scientists say.

When quizzed about the reason behind the creation of the whitest paint, scientists pointed out that it was not just for the record but was created in the wake of global warming. “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.

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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 developed incorporating barium sulphate particles reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat.

Such paints are considered to be a potential game-changer for keeping the planet – particularly cities – cooler and reducing electricity use; buildings with a coating of this would need to rely far less on energy-hungry air conditioning, a blog post by Guinness World Records read.

Suggesting that “the paint is more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses”, Ruan explains – using this new paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts.

The findings were published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on 15 April 2021.