The whitest white paint ever is also the coolest
By 
Rebecca Trager2021-04-20T13:30:00
New paint formulation that reflects up to 98.1% of sunlight can rival the cooling power of air conditioners
The world’s whitest white paint has been created by improving upon the formulation of an ultra-white paint developed by researchers at Purdue University in Indiana in October. The formulation could provide a cheap way to cool buildings by simply painting their roofs.
The new paint’s extreme whiteness is due to its very high concentration of barium sulfate, which is also a key ingredient in photographic paper and cosmetics. It appears to be the nearest white counterpart to Vantablack, which is one of the blackest substances known and was developed in 2014 by UK-based Surrey NanoSystems. The barium sulfate particles in the product are all different sizes, and that gives it the broadest spectrum scattering of light and contributes to its high reflectance.