A lab at Purdue University has created the world’s whitest paint. The scientists say the paint is so white that you might not need air conditioning. The paint was made in a bid to mitigate against global warming. Unsurprising, the Guinness World Records now recognizes it as the whitest paint ever created. Professor Xiulin Ruan, a mechanical engineer at Purdue University in Indiana, noted that the project commenced about seven years ago to mitigate against climate change and promote energy conservation. They hoped to achieve this by creating a paint that reflected sunlight to the largest extent possible.

What is the whitest paint made of?

The scientists at Purdue University revealed that they achieved the ultra-white feature of this paint by using highly concentrated barium sulfate. This compound is also used as a filler in making rubber and plastic products, photographic paper, and a contrast agent in medicine. The barium sulfate in this paint has various particle sizes which also contributes to the ultra-white nature of the paint. The amazing creation reflects up to 98.1 percent of the total radiation from the sun. It is an improvement on the white paint created last year that reflects 95.5% of sunlight.  It also emits infrared heat. With these features, the paint makes a painted roof top so cool it does not require air conditioning that consumes energy. It has been described as the white equivalent of Vantablack – the blackest black. The paint is even considered more efficient than the A/Cs most people have in their homes. In fact, if you paint a roof area of up to 1000 square feet with this paint, it will produce 10 kilowatts of cooling power. This promises to cut down building construction cost, as well as maintenance. The conventional commercial white paints usually get warmer because they can only reflect 80-90% of sunlight. This is not significant enough to make any surface cooler than the environmental temperature. These scientists are partnering with a manufacturing company to put this whitest paint in the world on the market.