Ultrawhite Paint (with Barium Sulfate) - Periodic Table of Videos

Summary

The script discusses an innovative paint that not only appears exceptionally white but also has cooling properties akin to air conditioning. Unlike traditional paints that absorb sunlight and heat up, this paint uses barium sulfate, a material that reflects nearly all sunlight wavelengths while allowing infrared heat to escape. This results in a surface that can be cooler than the surrounding air, a phenomenon known as radiative cooling. The paint's potential application on rooftops could provide an energy-efficient way to keep homes cool, reducing reliance on air conditioning and lowering CO2 emissions, making it a promising development in combating global warming.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The paper discusses a new type of paint that is exceptionally white and has cooling properties similar to air conditioning.
• 🌡️ The script explains the greenhouse effect, where sunlight in the form of short-wavelength light enters and is absorbed, causing the interior to heat up due to trapped long-wavelength heat radiation.
• 💧 The paint utilizes barium sulfate, a material that can be easily created by reacting barium chloride with dilute sulfuric acid, resulting in a precipitation of tiny, insoluble barium sulfate crystals.
• 🔬 Barium sulfate is used in varying particle sizes mixed with a binder to create the innovative white paint, which is different from traditional titanium dioxide-based paints.
• 🌞 Traditional white paints with titanium dioxide reflect visible light but absorb ultraviolet and infrared light, causing surfaces to warm up.
• 🌿 The new paint reflects nearly all wavelengths of sunlight, including ultraviolet and infrared, sending back the sun's energy and preventing surface warming.
• 👀 Barium sulfate is transparent to infrared light, allowing heat radiating from beneath the paint to escape into the atmosphere or space.
• 🏠 The paint enables radiative cooling, meaning surfaces coated with it can be cooler than the air outside, even in winter, suggesting a potential method for cooling buildings naturally.
• 🌍 The script suggests that painting house roofs with this paint could provide an energy-efficient way to keep homes cool without contributing to CO2 emissions.
• 🔬 The script also describes an experiment involving micron-scale particles of barium sulfate moving and aggregating in a solution, illustrating the material's properties.

Q & A

What is the main function of the new white paint mentioned in the script?

The new white paint is designed to not only be very white but also to cool things down and act like air conditioning when it's hot outside.

How does a greenhouse work in terms of heat retention?

A greenhouse works by allowing short-wavelength sunlight to pass through the glass and be absorbed by the plants inside. The plants then emit heat at a longer wavelength, which cannot escape through the glass, trapping the heat and making the inside very hot.

What is the key ingredient in the new white paint and how is it made?

The key ingredient in the new paint is barium sulfate, which is made by dissolving barium chloride in water to create a colorless solution and then adding dilute sulfuric acid, causing barium sulfate crystals to precipitate out.

Why is barium sulfate effective in the new paint?

Barium sulfate is effective because it is insoluble in water and can be mixed with a binder to create a paint that reflects nearly all wavelengths of sunlight, including ultraviolet and infrared light, which helps in cooling surfaces.

How does the new paint differ from traditional white paints that use titanium dioxide?

Traditional white paints using titanium dioxide reflect visible light but absorb ultraviolet and infrared light, causing surfaces to warm up. The new paint with barium sulfate reflects all sunlight wavelengths and is transparent to infrared, allowing heat to radiate out.

What phenomenon allows the surface under the new paint to be cooler than the air outside?

The phenomenon is called radiative cooling, which occurs because the surface under the paint can radiate heat into the atmosphere or space without receiving heat from the sunlight.

According to the script, what is one potential application of this new paint?

One potential application is painting the roofs of houses white to provide an effective way of keeping the house cool without using energy, similar to air conditioning.

How does the new paint contribute to environmental sustainability?

The new paint contributes to environmental sustainability by offering a cooling effect without the need for energy-consuming air conditioning, thereby reducing CO2 emissions and mitigating global warming.

What is the significance of using different size particles of barium sulfate in the paint?

Using a mixture of different size particles of barium sulfate in the paint enhances its effectiveness in reflecting sunlight and allowing heat to radiate out, making it more efficient than titanium dioxide paint.

Can the new paint be applied in winter as well, and what would be its effect?

Yes, the new paint can be applied in winter, and it can make the surface under the paint cooler than the paint itself, providing a consistent cooling effect regardless of the season.

How does the script describe the visual effect of the barium sulfate reaction?

The script describes the visual effect as a 'snowstorm' of tiny barium sulfate crystals precipitating out, creating swirling clouds that are visually appealing.

Outlines

00:00

🌡️ Revolutionary White Paint for Radiative Cooling

This paragraph introduces an innovative white paint that not only appears exceptionally white but also has the unique ability to cool surfaces, functioning similarly to air conditioning. The explanation begins with a basic understanding of how a greenhouse operates, using sunlight and trapped heat to warm the interior. The new paint, however, operates in reverse, utilizing barium sulfate, a compound that can be easily created by mixing barium chloride and dilute sulfuric acid, resulting in a visually appealing precipitation of tiny crystals. Unlike traditional white paints that use titanium dioxide and absorb ultraviolet and infrared light, causing surfaces to heat up, this paint reflects nearly all sunlight wavelengths due to a mixture of differently sized barium sulfate particles in a binder. Crucially, barium sulfate is transparent to infrared light, allowing heat radiated from beneath the paint to escape into the atmosphere or space. This property enables the paint to achieve radiative cooling, potentially making surfaces cooler than the ambient air temperature. The paragraph suggests that applying this paint to rooftops could provide an energy-efficient method of cooling homes without contributing to CO2 emissions.

05:03

🔬 Micron-Scale Particles in Solution

In this paragraph, the focus shifts to the observation of individual micron-scale particles within a solution. These particles, which are approximately one micrometer in diameter, are visible moving across the field of view. They exhibit dynamic behavior, aggregating at the edge of the solution and eventually falling out of it. This observation likely relates to the properties of the paint's constituent particles, highlighting their ability to interact and form aggregates, which may contribute to the paint's unique cooling effect by influencing how they scatter and absorb light.

Keywords

💡White Paint

The term 'White Paint' in this context refers to a new type of paint that is not only visually white but also has the unique property of cooling surfaces. This innovative paint is central to the video's theme, as it discusses its ability to reflect sunlight and radiate heat away from surfaces, which can contribute to energy-efficient cooling solutions.

💡Greenhouse Effect

The 'Greenhouse Effect' is a natural process where sunlight passes through a transparent medium, such as glass, and is absorbed by objects inside, which then re-emit heat in the form of longer wavelength radiation that cannot escape back through the glass, leading to warming. The video uses this concept to contrast how traditional greenhouses trap heat with how the new paint works in the opposite way, allowing heat to escape.

💡Barium Sulfate

Barium Sulfate is a key ingredient in the new paint discussed in the video. It is a white insoluble solid that is produced through a chemical reaction involving barium chloride and sulfuric acid. The video highlights its unique property of being transparent to infrared radiation, which allows heat to pass through the paint, contributing to the cooling effect.

💡Radiative Cooling

Radiative cooling is a phenomenon where a surface cools down by radiating heat into the atmosphere or space. The video explains that the new paint enables radiative cooling by reflecting sunlight and allowing the escape of infrared heat, making surfaces cooler than the surrounding air, which is a significant advancement in passive cooling technology.

💡Titanium Dioxide (TiO2)

Titanium Dioxide, or TiO2, is a common ingredient in traditional white paints. It is known for reflecting visible light but absorbs ultraviolet and infrared light, which can cause surfaces to heat up. The video contrasts TiO2 with barium sulfate, emphasizing the latter's superior heat reflection and transmission properties for cooling applications.

💡Infrared Radiation

Infrared radiation is a type of electromagnetic wave that carries heat. The video explains that barium sulfate is transparent to this type of radiation, allowing heat to escape through the paint, which is crucial for the cooling effect. This is a key concept in understanding how the new paint works differently from traditional paints.

💡Particle Size

The script mentions a mixture of different size particles of barium sulfate. This is significant because the varying particle sizes enhance the paint's ability to reflect sunlight across a broader spectrum of wavelengths, making it more effective at cooling than paints with uniform particle sizes.

💡Binder

A binder in paint is a substance that holds the pigment particles together and adheres them to the surface being painted. In the context of the video, the binder is used to mix with barium sulfate particles to create the white paint, which is essential for its application and performance.

💡Energy Efficiency

The concept of energy efficiency is central to the video's narrative, as it discusses how the new paint can provide cooling without the need for energy-consuming air conditioning. This aligns with broader themes of sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, which are important in the context of climate change.

💡Global Warming

Global warming is mentioned in the video as a potential consequence of increased CO2 emissions from energy use, such as air conditioning. The new paint is presented as a solution that could help mitigate this by providing an energy-efficient way to cool buildings, thus reducing reliance on energy-intensive cooling methods.

Highlights

A new type of very white paint has been developed that can cool surfaces like air conditioning.

The paint uses barium sulfate, a material that is easy to make and has unique properties.

Barium sulfate is created by mixing barium chloride with dilute sulfuric acid, resulting in a snowstorm of tiny crystals.

The paint is made by mixing different size particles of barium sulfate with a binder.

Traditional white paints use titanium dioxide, which reflects visible light but absorbs UV and infrared light, causing surfaces to heat up.

The new paint reflects nearly all wavelengths from sunlight, sending back the sun's energy.

Barium sulfate is transparent to infrared, allowing heat from underneath the paint to radiate out.

The paint enables radiative cooling, where surfaces can be cooler than the air outside, even in winter.

The paint could provide an effective way to keep houses cool without energy use, unlike air conditioning.

Painting house roofs white with this new paint could significantly reduce the need for air conditioning.

The paint could be a major advancement in creating cool environments without contributing to CO2 emissions.

The paint's effectiveness is due to the use of individual micron-scale particles of barium sulfate.

The paint's particles move and aggregate in solution, demonstrating their unique behavior.

The innovative paint has the potential to revolutionize cooling methods and reduce energy consumption.

The paint's properties could lead to more sustainable and environmentally friendly cooling solutions.

The study's findings have practical applications for reducing global warming and improving energy efficiency.

Transcripts

so i want to tell you about really quite

exciting paper about a new very white

paint not only is it very white

but it can actually cool things down

act a bit like air conditioning when

it's hot outside

before that let me just remind you how a

greenhouse works

and the greenhouse as you know has sun

light shining on it it gets warmer

inside

than it is outside and the way that it

works

is that the sunlight which is short

wavelength

light can go through the glass and it's

absorbed

by whatever is inside the greenhouse the

plants and so on

they get warm up because they've

absorbed the sunlight

and then they give out heat a much

longer wavelength and that heat

radiation cannot get out through the

glass

the heat is trapped inside and it gets

very hot

now this paint works in the exact

opposite way it uses

a material called barium sulphate

it's quite easy to make i asked neil to

make some for us

and you take a solution of barium

chloride

barium is the element two below

calcium in the periodic table so you

make

a solution dissolving the barium

chloride

in water and you get a colorless

solution

and then you add dilute sulfuric acid

and barium sulfate is

insoluble or almost insoluble in water

so you get a sort of snow storm

of tiny barium sulfate crystals

precipitating out and it looks really

beautiful

you see these swirling clouds brady

who's hard to impress wanted to see it

twice

[Music]

[Music]

so it is a really nice reaction it's

also

quite a good test for barium if you want

to

show that you've got a solution of

barium add a little sulfuric acid

down it comes however what has been done

in this very recent article is that they

have used

a mixture of different size particles of

barium sulfate

and mixed it in a binder so you can make

white paint

normally the white paints that you and i

use

uses titanium dioxide tio2

which reflects visible light

but absorbs ultraviolet light and also

absorbs

infrared light so if you have something

painted with

titanium dioxide it reflects the visible

light

but absorbs the uv in infrared so the

surface gets warm from the sun

this new paint reflects nearly

all the wavelengths from the sunlight so

all the energy of the sun is sent back

again

and because of all these different sized

particles

it's much more effective than titanium

dioxide paint

but and here's the exciting thing

barium sulfate is transparent in the

infrared

so the heat radiating out from whatever

is under the paint

can go through the barium sulfate paint

and radiate out into space or into the

atmosphere

so what is below is giving out heat

but it's not receiving any heat from the

sunlight so it can be

colder than the air outside

or the warmth from the sun

so you can get something that is

called radiative cooling and according

to this article

even in winter when it's really cold

the surface under the paint can be

cooler than the paint itself

and their suggestion is that if we all

painted

the roofs of our houses white

it would give us a really effective way

of keeping the house cool

without using any source of energy

as we would with air conditioning now

i'm not sure whether in this house you

could paint the roof

white but in many countries it would be

possible

and this could really be quite a big

advance in providing

a nice cool environment for us to live

without adding to the

co2 emissions that will contribute to

global warming

individual micron scale micron diameter

particles

and you can see that they're moving

across you can see them moving around in

the solution

and they're joining on here they're

aggregating at the edge they're falling

out of solution