Debashis Chanda, a professor at the University of Central Florida's
NanoScience Technology Center, was inspired by butterflies to develop the
first environmentally sound, substantial, and multicolored replacement for
pigment-based colorants, which can aid in energy-saving efforts and
counteract global warming.
The discovery was today highlighted in a piece in Science Advances.
The variety of colors and hues in the natural world are astounding,
according to Chanda, ranging from aquatic life like fish and cephalopods to
vibrant flora, birds, and butterflies. "In a number of exceptionally
colorful species, structural color acts as the main source of color,
producing all hues through the geometrical organization of usually two
colorless materials. With synthetic pigment, however, fresh molecules are
required for each hue that is visible."
Chanda's study team invented a plasmonic paint based on such
bio-inspirations that uses the nanoscale structural organization of
colorless materials—aluminum and aluminum oxide—instead of pigments to
produce hues.
In contrast to pigment colorants, which control light absorption based
solely on the geometrical organization of nanostructures, structural
colorants control how light is deflected, dispersed, or absorbed based
solely on the electronic characteristic of the pigment substance.
As opposed to the current pigment-based colors, which use chemically
manufactured molecules, such structural colors only use metals and oxides,
making them ecologically sustainable.
To create long-lasting paints in all hues, the experts have merged their
structural color particles with a commercial binder.
According to Chanda, pigment loses its capacity to capture light, which
causes normal color to diminish. "We are not constrained by that occurrence
here. When we apply structural pigment to something, it should endure for
millennia."
The underneath surface stays 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit colder than it
would if it were painted with regular commercial paint because plasmonic
paint reflects the complete infrared spectrum and thus absorbs less heat,
the researcher claims.
According to Chanda, air conditioning uses up over 10% of all energy in the
United States. "Plasmonic paint's guarantee of a temperature difference
would result in substantial energy savings. Additionally, reducing the
amount of energy used for cooling would reduce carbon dioxide pollution,
slowing global warming."
The expert notes that plasmonic paint is also incredibly lightweight.
This is a result of the paint's high area-to-thickness ratio, which makes
it the world's lightest paint because complete coloration can be obtained at
a thickness of just 150 nanometers, according to Chanda.
According to him, the paint is so light that a Boeing 747, which typically
needs more than 1,000 pounds of conventional paint, could be painted using
only about 3 pounds of plasmonic paint.
Chanda claims that the brightness of insects is what first piqued his
interest in structural color.
I always wished to construct a butterfly when I was a child, he claims. "I
am interested in color."
Potential investigation
The project's next stages, according to Chanda, include a deeper
investigation of the paint's energy-saving features to increase its
viability as a business paint.
He claims that large factories with the capacity to produce hundreds of
barrels of paint are used to produce standard pigment paint. "At the
present, it is still costly to make at an academic lab unless we go through
the scale-up procedure."
We must offer something unique that other traditional coatings cannot,
according to Chanda, such as non-toxicity, cooling impact, and ultralight
weight.
Provided by
University of Central Florida
