Researchers create ultra-white paint that could cool buildings

2021-04-16T17:54:00-04:00

Scientists in the US have developed a paint significantly "whiter than the whitest paint currently available". Tests carried out by researchers at Purdue University on their "ultra-white" paint showed it reflected more than 98% of sunlight. That suggests, the scientists say, that it could help save energy and fight climate change.

The paint's whiteness opens up a range of cooling features that, applied at an industrial scale, could limit the built environment's contributing effect to global warming and its dependency on traditional air conditioning.

"If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet, we estimate that you could get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses," predicts Xiulin Ruan, the Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, who led the research.

An infrared camera shows how a sample of the whitest white paint (the dark purple square in the middle) actually cools the board below ambient temperature. Credit: Purdue University/Joseph Peoples.

"Using high-accuracy temperature reading equipment called thermocouples, the researchers demonstrated outdoors that the paint can keep surfaces 19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient surroundings at night," claims the study. "It can also cool surfaces 8 d...

ASLA 2013 Student Excellence Award Winner: Natural Water as Cultural Water by Daniel Zhicheng Xu

2013-11-01T17:47:00-04:00

Daniel (Zhicheng) Xu, an undergraduate at Purdue University, recently won the ASLA 2013 Student Awards - Award of Excellence in the Analysis and Planning Category for his project "Natural Water as Cultural Water / A 30 Year Plan for Wabash River Corridor in Lafayette." The project is a stormwater management plan to achieve ecological and cultural resilience for the poor landscape conditions of the Wabash River in Lafayette, Indiana.

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Researchers create ultra-white paint that could cool buildings

ASLA 2013 Student Excellence Award Winner: Natural Water as Cultural Water by Daniel Zhicheng Xu