NightHawkInLight, a popular YouTuber, has been working on a fascinating project involving radiative sky paint. This special coating is designed to emit heat in the infrared spectrum, a wavelength that isn’t easily absorbed or reflected by the atmosphere. The intriguing result is a passive system that can keep materials a few degrees cooler in direct sunlight compared to untreated objects in the shade. Despite sounding like magic, the mathematical calculations behind it are apparently sound. Read More Business News on our website.
While NightHawkInLight had previously demonstrated infrared cooling using Barium Sulfate microspheres, the process of creating those microspheres was quite complex and beyond the capabilities of an average garage tinkerer. Hence, over the past year, NightHawk has been working on a do-it-yourself (DIY) recipe that is more accessible. And it seems like the efforts have paid off, as the recipe involves washing baking soda, de-icer, and citric acid, and blending them together.
This produces microsphere crystals of calcium carbonate, but that’s only part of the challenge. To achieve effective cooling, the resulting paint requires a high density of spheres. The key lies in managing the crystal sizes by blending batches of microspheres of different sizes. The longer the blending process, the smaller the crystals become, maximizing the density of the paint.
The next step involves mixing the dried powder of the microspheres in specific ratios to achieve the desired density. This powder needs to be suspended in a medium to create a paint, and NightHawk’s current recipe involves using an acrylic medium with suspended water particles.
By mixing water, acetone, and bits of Plexiglas, the acetone evaporates, leaving the water trapped in the acrylic, resulting in a bright, reflective coating. When combined with the calcium carbonate microspheres, this paint becomes both reflective and emissive in the infrared frequency range, which conveniently passes through the atmosphere. However, it’s worth noting that the paint has a consistency similar to cake icing rather than traditional paint. NightHawk has had some success applying the mixture using an oversized piping bag, but further developments are underway.
In the future, NightHawkInLight plans to provide instructions on how to transform this mixture into self-contained cooling panels, offering a power-free air conditioning solution. Exciting updates are expected, so stay tuned to learn more about this innovative project.