White Paint - Global Warming

Did you know about the white paint global warming connection? Read ahead to find out. Global warming has been a rampant problem for the world and that too for a very long period of time. The most major concern for scientists and the leaders of the world is the spiking temperature that we witness every single year across the earth. 

Global warming has single-handedly managed to worry not just the people but the animals and other living things in the world as well. Owing to this problem, various scientific communities across the world are trying to work on different innovative solutions to global warming. There are many scientists claiming that they are able to reduce the temperatures and cool the earth down a little bit. But the ultimate answer to global warming is something very simple like paint. To be exact, white paint. 

Why The White Paint is So Special? 

In the month of April 2021, a few researchers from Purdue University completed a feat that would be considered nothing short of a miracle. Yes, they created the ‘Whitest’ paint ever. This is by far the brightest white paint that has been created by anyone and hence there are some special properties that it has. The scientist claimed that when this paint was used, it could properly reflect about 98.2% of the sunlight. No other paint in the world is able to reflect that amount. Most paints that are used in buildings and other project management reflect 80% sunlight at most. So, this paint was surely considered a miracle. 

White Paint 

The primary component of the white paint is Barium Sulphate. Apparently, the researchers experimented with more than 100 different chemicals and the one that worked the most efficiently was barium sulphate. Coincidentally, barium sulphate is also the material that is used to create photo paper. It is the use of Barium sulphate that gives the paint a bright white colour. But how is that possible, one might ask? 

Well, there are different-sized particles that tend to scatter different portions and amounts of light. In order to create this particular type of paint, the scientists managed to apply this concept and got results. They started by adding different sizes and amounts of barium sulphate to the paint combination so that more sunlight is efficiently scattered from the spectrum. That is one of the main reasons why the paint is so much whiter than the other types of paint. 

Learn More About Room Cooling Paint: Why Was It Created

This might be interesting to know that the researchers from Purdue University are the same ones who were responsible for the creation of Ultra White Paint in the month of October 2020. However, at that time, the paint could reflect just about 95% of the sunlight. What is even more interesting is that the paint has actually managed to get into the Guinness World Record collections as the whitest paint that has ever been made by people. So, what do you think is the reason for the creation of such paint? 

Well, it turns out that it was not the goal of the researchers to break any Guinness World Record, but they wanted to cure the problem of global warming. When they started the project, about 7 years ago, the main goal of the project was to fight climate change and save energy. The idea here was to create such a paint that is able to reflect a high amount of sunlight away from a building. 

What Can the White Paint Be Used For? 

According to some important sources, this white paint for global warming has the power to cool the buildings down. Yes, you heard it absolutely right. When this paint is used on the roof of any particular building, it manages to reflect almost all of the sunlight, as we have mentioned before. The result of this action is that the paint is able to cool down the roof in the best way. 

The power of cooling of this white paint is actually more than that of the air conditioners that are used in most buildings these days. When the room cooling paint was tested out, it managed to cool down the surfaces by 10 degrees Celsius and that too at night and it provided a cooling effect of 4 degrees Celsius during the noon.

The scientists who have created this paint have claimed that having a 1000 square meter building roof coated with this global warming painting can lead to a cooling effect that is similar to almost 10 kilowatts of energy. Just to provide a comparison, the 3-ton air conditioning systems that are used in buildings tend to use about 3 Kilowatts of energy every single hour. In a more radical manner, scientists have made a suggestion that we use this paint to properly coat the different surfaces of the earth, albeit in locations where there is no human population. They have this firm belief that using this paint on the Earth’s surface will help in providing a significant cooling effect for the planet.

According to scientists, the main job of air conditioning in different homes is to take the heat from the inside of the house and throw it outside. However, this still means that the heat is on the surface of the earth or in the atmosphere. With the use of this climate changing painting element, the heat is mostly transferred to space and is no longer a remnant on the earth's surface. They have claimed that some of the hottest cities in the world such as Reno and Phoenix could truly use the paint in the best way and have about 70% less air conditioning in their systems. Such a change is pretty huge to imagine. 

Conclusion: Can The White Paint Curb Global Warming? 

The scientists behind the creation of this brightest white paint are very hopeful that with less use of air conditioning and the cooling effect created in buildings due to this paint, pretty soon, they will have a permanent solution for global warming by painting the surface of the earth with this paint.