Now here is a spanking new high-tech material that is being developed by engineers who happen to hail from the University of Stanford, where it will be able to cool down buildings through the reflection of sunlight as well as having it radiate internal heat – which directs it both out into space. This team of engineers is being led by electrical engineering Professor Shanhui Fan as well as research associate Aaswath Raman, where their brains’ collective power has resulted in what they call the ‘double-hit’ method, where they have called it “photonic radiative cooling”.
This material measures a mere 1.8 microns in thickness, which makes it thinner compared to the thinnest aluminum foil out there. It is made up of seven layers of silicon dioxide and hafnium oxide located on top of a thin layer of silver. Each of these layers will differ in terms of thickness, where they have been specially engineered to radiate infrared rays at a special frequency so that they can pass out of the building, going straight into the atmosphere without having to warm up the surrounding air. Not only that, this coating doubles up as an extremely efficient mirror, reflecting 97% of the sun’s rays from its surface.
In other words, it delivers an extremely efficient method of cooling down a building, while lowering the need for air conditioning. Looks like we are finding new ways to make use of existing materials to make our lives easier, right?
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