New plastic can cool everything that touches up to 10 ° C

This intense summer, here comes the good news! A new material has just been developed that can bring some relief to the heat! The material consists of a plastic film fused with small glass beads.

“Plastic” when combined with a silver film similar to those used on mirrors can cool the surface on which it slopes by up to 10 ° C. But the biggest advantage here is that the material can be produced cheaply, has the potential for large-scale manufacturing, and already offers a variety of applications, such as building construction or equipment that works best in low temperatures.

Novelty

During the day, most materials and even people absorb some of the sun's rays and therefore heat up. But as time goes on, they emit some of that energy back and gradually cool down. With this in mind, researchers have been looking for materials that can absorb as little light as possible but still continue to emit energy.

Some scientists in California had already created a material that could cool surfaces down to 5 ° C, but they depended on technologies that made their product more expensive. A University of Colorado materials scientist, Xiaobo Yin, read this research and thought of a simpler way to produce the material.

Using glass spheres about 8 micrometers in diameter - little larger than a blood cell - Yin and his team have found a powerful way to emit much of the energy back.

Putting all the components together, the scientists came up with a film that absorbs only 4% of the photons coming from the sun. But most surprising is the price! Yin was able to manufacture his material at a cost of only 25 to 50 cents - or the equivalent of about $ 0.77 to $ 1.55 - for each square meter.

Scientists have already considered using this new plastic in building cooling systems and to increase the efficiency of solar cells. But surely we will have many other applications for the new material.

* This text is written by Marcus Cattem, Professor of Science and Biology.