Traditional paints fade over time and come from synthetic pigments that are not very environmentally friendly. But a better alternative may soon emerge in the form of paints that incorporate color-producing nanostructures.
I’ve heard of techniques that mimic the way certain butterfly wings display such vibrant colors before. These wings do not use natural pigments with nanoscale structures that reflect/scatter and absorb ambient white light to appear as bright red, blue, green, etc. colors.
Scientists at the University of Central Florida, led by Professor Debashis Chanda, have recreated the phenomenon with an experimental “plasmonic paint.”
It incorporates small mirror-like flakes of aluminum coated with even smaller particles of aluminum oxide, along with a commercially available binder fluid (polymer resin and isopropyl alcohol). Depending on the size and spacing of these nanoparticles, the flakes appear either cyan, magenta, or yellow. By mixing different primary colors of flakes in different ratios, different paint shades can be produced.
According to Chanda, the aluminum used in paint is much less harmful to the environment than the synthetic pigments currently used in conventional paint. Although it gradually loses its ability to absorb and becomes dull in appearance, the nanostructured flakes should produce the same vibrant color indefinitely.
Furthermore, due to the large area-to-thickness ratio, very little plasmonic paint is needed to effectively coat the surface. For example, the university needs only about 3 pounds (1.4 kg) of paint to paint a 747 jumbo jet, compared to over 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of paint to do the same job with conventional paint. said it was necessary. This makes Plasmonic Paint officially the lightest paint in the world.
Finally, paint absorbs very little heat as it reflects the entire infrared spectrum. As a result, underlying surfaces are reported to stay 25 to 30 ºF (14 to 17 ºC) cooler than if coated with a conventional paint of the same color.
“More than 10% of all US electricity is used for air conditioning,” says Chanda. “The temperature differential promised by plasmonic paint translates into significant energy savings. Less power used for cooling means less carbon dioxide emissions and less global warming.”
Plasmonic paint made in the lab teeth It is currently more expensive to manufacture than mass-produced pigmented paints. It is hoped that this situation will disappear once the technology is scaled up to commercial production levels.
The study is described in a paper recently published in the journal. scientific progress.
Source: University of Central Florida
