New 'Glass Paint' Will Keep Ships, Cars And Buildings Stay Cool

A new type of paint, currently under development at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory holds promise to reflect sunlight off the surface to maintain lower temperatures. This new paint was described at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society (#-Link-Snipped-#) by Jason J. Benkoski. If the ongoing tests on the paint produce desired results, it will help keep ships, cars and buildings stay cool and thus help prevent the wear and tear to a greater extent.

Benkoski explained that with the rise in temperature; corrosion, fatigue and general wear accelerate. This often results into increased expenditure of time and money in maintenance. One of the ways to fix this problem is to coat the surface with special paint that will help keep the temperature under check. Typical paints available are known to release compounds that aren't environment friendly. Moreover, most of these paints are made from epoxy polymers and can degrade under UV light from the Sun.


Benkoski and his team has been researching to develop a more durable paint inspired by paints that are called 'water glass'. The materials used to develop these are very basic; like the potash and sand. The 'water glass' paints are known to be long lasting - and have known to last for several decades.

The research team is currently engaged in developing a paint that works on metallic surfaces and exploring possibilities of commercial grade production. The team expects to begin their field tests in the next two years. Here's a video shared by the ACS -

Source: Glass Paint Could Help Ships And Buildings Beat The Sun's Heat