Egyptian pigment to cool buildings

A blue pigment used by the Egyptians thousands of years ago will find applications in cooling facades and roofs of buildings. Egyptian blue, derived from copper and calcium silicate, was commonly used on ancient representations of gods and royalty in ancient Egypt. A team of researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) measured the temperature of surfaces coated with this colour exposed to the sun. They discovered that this fluorescent blue can emit nearly 100% of the absorbed photons.

The energy efficiency of the emission process can reach 70% (infrared photons carry less energy than visible photons). The researchers had already shown that ruby red fluorescent pigments could be an effective alternative to white. This new discovery adds a color to the palette. They also discovered that fluorescent green and black colours can be produced with yellow and orange co-pigments. The new results were recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics. In addition to its cooling potential for buildings, the fluorescence of Egyptian blue could also be useful for the production of photovoltaic solar energy.

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