Paint may not seem like the heaviest component to consider when building such a large appliance plane, but its mass can add. Now a new and lightweight substance can provide a welcome replacement: two materials scientists Fujii Minoru and Sugimoto Hiroshi from Kobe University have discovered nanospheres with invisible silicon crystals. The particles are very large and can reflect light due to efficient scattering. study published in the journal ACS Appl Nano Matter details. The result can mean covering a surface in vibrant color while adding only 10 percent of the weight that paint would bring. Fast Company reports.
This reduction can have a major impact on factors such as manufacturing cost and carbon emissions. Simply put, as an aircraft weighs more, it must use more fuel, thus directly increasing the amount of money airlines spend (and then charge customers). the fuel burned as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Minoru and Hiroshi’s discovery focuses on structural color rather than pigment color to display and maintain hue. First, the human eye absorbs wavelengths while reflecting what it catches. Structural colors, on the other hand, “intense and bright colors are created by the interaction of light with periodic micro- and nanostructures that cause color by interference, coherent scattering, or diffraction.” Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology.
The team’s work follows previous research in which they were able to construct nanocrystals of a specific size. Then came the creation of a colloidal suspension that kept the crystalline silica nanoparticles mixed with a supporting fluid instead of separating them. Currently, the color of the nanosphere-based ink changes as the team changes the size of the nanocrystals. Larger particles produce warm colors like red, while smaller particles show cooler tones like blue. These shades should remain the same regardless of the angle at which a person sees them.
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