Instead of pigment-based pigmented paints that require artificially synthesized molecules, UCF researchers have developed an alternative method to produce more natural, environmentally friendly and lightweight pigmented paints.
Debashis Chanda, a researcher at the University of Central Florida and a professor at UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center, took inspiration from butterflies to develop an eco-friendly, large-scale, multicolor alternative to pigment-based colorants. Created for the first time. Reduce global warming.
This development was published today as a feature article in Science Advances.
“The range of colors and shades in nature is amazing, from colorful flowers, birds and butterflies to underwater creatures such as fish and cephalopods,” says Chanda. “Structural color serves as the primary color-producing mechanism in some highly brilliant species, where the geometric arrangement of typically two colorless substances produces all colors. In artificial pigments, on the other hand, We need new molecules for every color that exists.”
Based on such bioinspiration, Chanda’s research group innovated plasmonic paint. This paint utilizes nanoscale structural arrangements of colorless materials (aluminum and aluminum oxide) instead of pigments to create color.
All colors require new molecules because pigment colorants control light absorption based on the electronic properties of the pigment material, whereas structural colorants reflect light based purely on the nanostructured geometry. , scatter, or absorb.
Such structural colors are environmentally friendly as they only use metals and oxides, unlike current pigment-based colors that use artificially synthesized molecules.
Researchers combined structural color flakes with commercial binders to form long-lasting paints of all colors.
“Normal colors fade because pigments lose their ability to absorb photons,” says Chanda. “Here, we’re not limited to that phenomenon. If you paint something with structural color, it should hold up for centuries.”
In addition, because the plasmonic paint reflects the entire infrared spectrum, less heat is absorbed by the paint, thus keeping the underside 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than when covered with standard commercial paint. researchers say.
“More than 10% of all electricity in the United States is used for air conditioning,” says Chanda. “The temperature differential promised by plasmonic paint translates into significant energy savings. Less electricity used for cooling means less carbon dioxide emissions and less global warming.”
The plasmonic paint is also very lightweight, researchers say.
Chanda says this is due to the large area-to-thickness ratio of the paint, which achieves full coloration with a paint thickness of just 150 nanometers, making it the lightest paint in the world.
The paint is so light that it can cover a Boeing 747, which would normally require more than 1,000 pounds of conventional paint, with about 3 pounds of plasmonic paint, he says.
Chanda says her interest in structural color stems from the vividness of butterflies.
“When I was a kid, I always wanted to make butterflies,” he says. “Colors interest me.”
future research
Chanda said next steps in the project include further investigating the energy-saving aspects of the paint to improve its viability as a commercial paint.
“Traditional pigment paint is made in large facilities that can produce hundreds of gallons of paint,” he says. “At the moment, it’s still too expensive to produce in an academic lab unless you go through the process of scaling up.”
“It has to bring to the table something other traditional paints can’t: non-toxic, cooling, and ultralight,” says Chanda.
License Opportunity
For more information on licensing this technology, please see our Inorganic Paint Pigments Technical Sheet for Vivid Plasmonic Color.
Original: UCF researchers create world’s first energy-saving paint – inspired by butterflies
Than: University of Central Florida
