201–210 of 271 posts
"An infrared camera (right image) shows how a sample of the whitest white paint (the dark purple square in the middle [of the infrared image]) cools the board below ambient temperature." So... Maxwell's demon?
Still, it's pretty cool.
If the goal is to keep buildings cool you don't want your paint to be as reflective as possible in the whole solar spectrum. You want it to have a low reflectivity (thus high absorption/emissivity) in the infrared window[0] where you'll emit more into space than you'll absorb and high reflectivity in the rest of the spectrum. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_window
This sounds like a waste of energy to me. I think all roofs should be covered in solar power generating equipment. Reflecting all that sun energy back into the air just heats up our planet, better to convert that into electricity
Sure, using the energy for solar would be nice too, but that’s far more expensive per square meter, so paint is a fine solution that’s cheap.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a lot of practicality/implementation concerns to paint other than what color it is. Just as many if not more than there are for battery technologies. Does the paint stick to the surface you want to paint, how is it applied, what is the coverage, is it durable, does it repel contaminants, can it withstand the environmental conditions, is it chemically compatible with the surface, it is chemically a concern f…
one thing i’ve learned from doing little home improvement projects over the past few years is that paint is a 2-part product, primer and topcoat, and neither should be skipped if you want good results. generally speaking, primer sticks and seals while topcoat colors and protects. this isn’t made obvious in any way to the novice, and big box store workers seem as ignorant about it as anyone.
IMO, the stores could do better about offering basic information about this, about when one would need a primer, or just a topcoat, what kinds of paint bases are appropriate for what applications, what kinds of application methods are appropriate, etc. Instead, the response of the big box stores seems to be to skip the question entirely with combined products, e.g. "paint and primer in one".
I bet this would look fantastic mixed with some vantablack, for the greyest grey achievable.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-blue-pigment...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems the existing finishes would also degrade along exactly the same curve. Starting at a higher point on the curve might leave this finish, in it's environmentally degraded state, still brighter than the other white finishes when new, and certainly brighter after both are exposed. Also, if this were that big a problem, it seems that solar panels would fail. It seems that rain often counteracts the pollution, dus…
Solar panels will drop in effectiveness as they get dusty and dirty. They need to be cleaned periodically.
I'm not seeing a problem here that supports GP's implication that the new 98% reflective paint is somehow rendered useless vs existing extra-bright ~85% white paint, which already demonstrably works. It seems that the new paint would work better on any cleaning schedule, up to the point where the pollutants fully covered both surfaces. Am I missing something?
"We did a very rough calculation," said Prof Ruan. "And we estimate we would only need to paint 1% of the Earth's surface with this paint - perhaps an area where no people live that is covered in rocks - and that could help fight the climate change trend." LMAO me I love living in the future. This sentence could’ve been lifted from the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Someone needs to compile a list of all this fringe tech that I see popping up in my feeds, almost daily now. I know there are techpress blogs that pump out articles like this, but there doesn't seem to be an authoritative compendium of such tech anywhere on the net. I could curate this by hand with 3 hours of free time and some Red Bull I suppose. The reason I want this is because we seem to be swimming in innovation…
This is nothing new. You are just now hearing more about it because of how journalism is being done online. There have always been lots of revolutionary things happening in labs. They are rarely ever practical, or if they are it will take decades to bring to market. How many dozens of new battery techs are announced as being "better than lithium ion" only to disappear once everyone realized how impractical they are.…