https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2449031&seq... I was wondering how is white the most reflective color, since there is also a thing called silver mirror
'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
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Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
They didn't have one important dot: cheap good steel or other durable materials. Steel for them was more expensive and hard to get than titanium now.
This reminds me of the 2.8kg pyramid which sits atop the Washington Monument. At the time it was cast, it was the largest single casting of an exotic metal which cost more than silver, known to you and I as Aluminium.
I think Napoleon had a set of aluminium cutlery... to show off his extreme wealth.
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#113Someone 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…
The field you're looking for is called "tech transfer" - many universities have technology transfer offices that help research connect from a lab to industry, usually enriching researchers through the sale of patents or consulting contracts.
I don't know of any compendium on the web, but if someone were looking to get started there is a field to dig into where people do this kind of work full time. It's essentially a two-sided market making process of curating useful innovations and building up a sales function to close deals.
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#114I bet this would look fantastic mixed with some vantablack, for the greyest grey achievable.
The next step is using the combination in e-ink fashion, so that you can smoothly regulate the thermal profile as needed.
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Neat. I was wondering if you could buy that stuff. There are trim pieces in my car I want to paint with it to eliminate reflections in the cabin.
Can I get in on that action? I don't understand why instrument cluster bezels are universally chromed but I hate it and my eyes hate it and I'd really like to look at my gauges without getting blinded.
Hah, yep, same situation on both my Ford vehicles.
I think I’ll end up removing the trim, masking the pieces I dont want to paint, and then hitting the chrome with Plastidip spray. It’s an aerosol can that contains a rubberized coating. It comes out looking like a matte finish paint but it can be peeled off of most surfaces so it’s not permanent.
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.…
oh yes, there was a sort of 3d memory lasered into scotch tape(german tesa) rolls. They just could not make it durable.
I researched this a few weeks ago and commented here[1]. I got a reply from someone with firsthand knowledge of the work. I love HN for that kind of stuff!
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#117What we need is a paint that turns white when air temperature is high, and black when air temperature is low to reduce our heating and cooling needs.
Though black surfaces radiate energy more easily due to higher emissivity, and white radiate less due to low emissivity. So the benefit may be less than you think.
Notably, the benefit may be "less" than expected but for all intents and purposes any building or vehicle painted black will be consistently warmer than the equivalent in white. Unless your item is built for purpose it's highly unlikely painting something black will make a visible difference in the cooling rate compared to the white one, at least not in conditions that might be relevant for our discussion.
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#118Reminds me of “anti-flash white,” developed for bombers during the early years of the cold war. The theory was that the specially formulated white paint would reflect enough of a nuclear explosion’s thermal energy to allow the aircraft to survive the explosion as the bomber departed the scene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-flash_white It was also used on interceptors like the Avro Arrow prototypes.
This makes me wonder, does "anti-flash white" reflect more than polished mirror-like metal?
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#119Won't this rapidly lose reflectively anyway on top of any city building due to soot/dirt? Lowering cost or increasing durability probably matters far more for reflecting sunlight using white paint.
you can consider it the same as solar panels, which need periodic cleaning to maintain high performance
Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight
#120"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.