Scientists in Hong Kong have demonstrated a new ultra-white ceramic material that can drastically cool buildings by reflecting sunlight and heat at record highs. The beetle-inspired material gets its ability from its nanostructure, stays tough to the elements and should be relatively easy to scale…

Ultra-white ceramic cools buildings with record-high 99.6% reflectivity::undefined

    • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.mlEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      The article addresses that. It is because ceramics are durable while paints and coatings are not.

      • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
        31·
        1 year ago

        Seems like the effort involved in putting down paint would outweigh the durability. Perhaps they’re thinking about robots to place the tiles though, like on Starship?

        • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Roof tiles. They want to make these into roof tiles. There is a big picture in the article and they even talk about roof tiles. Did no one read the article?

    • Astongt615@lemmy.oneEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Most coatings like paint that have this effect include ceramics to do most of the reflection, but the other paint stuff the ceramic substrate is emulsified in does not have near the reflectivity, so you’re impairing yourself if reflectivity/heat rejection is the only goal.