Scientists in Hong Kong have demonstrated a new ultra-white ceramic material that can drastically cool buildings by reflecting sunlight and heat at record highs. The beetle-inspired material gets its ability from its nanostructure, stays tough to the elements and should be relatively easy to scale…

Ultra-white ceramic cools buildings with record-high 99.6% reflectivity::undefined

    • Pennomi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      111·
      2 years ago

      It looks like this reflects and scatters the light, rather than reflects and focuses it. Otherwise it would look like a mirror, not a ceramic.

    • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      2 years ago

      If the top of my head

      • it cools your house in the winter, too
      • It’s probably annoyingly bright if you can see the roof from ground level
      • likely to degrade over time necessitating replacing tiles to maintain the effect
      • Doesn’t work as well if you’ve got solar panels or trees obstructing it
      • other stuff, probably