tech

Scientists make thin material that acts as air conditioner

20 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2017 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

20 Comments
Login to comment

Hats off to the researchers at Colorado U and to the funding source that financed this effort. The US needs to increase its funding for research leading to ways to reduce reliance on and use of fossil fuels. Funding efforts to increase the efficiencies of solar power should be one of the country's highest priorities.

In another article I read the material is a glass-polymer hybrid, but it did not list the specific elements it's made from. It would be nice to think the elements are those found in the US so the US does not need to rely on getting them from another country.

The US needs to limit the burning of petroleum and stop relying on natural resources taken from foreign nations. Physician heal thyself!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

You don't need a new material for roof cooling, you can cool down a home now by painting the roof top white not black. Cool it down to 20 C.

This material might be useful in renewable applications to rocket past even more so their grid parity past oil and gas

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

slightly more than aluminum foil

Researchers found the material could cool objects by dissipating the sun’s thermal energy in the form of infrared radiation.

It needs a better explanation than here to convey how this material does this better than aluminium foil itself would.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Moonraker the aluminium foil comment was only talking about the thickness of the new material. Interesting that it seems that it is two Chinese researchers who have made this discovery. In Trumps new America will these people be allowed in to continue to find these new and amazing discoveries?

7 ( +9 / -2 )

researchers who have made this discovery.

As the picture below shows, US high tech industries MUST be allowed to hire individuals the companies and institutions think will benefit their needs and the country's the most.

It's the US's fault that they can't educate their own citizens in the sciences and other fields. Physician heal thyself: stop blaming others for the problems you created for yourself.

http://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/02/09/newly-engineered-material-can-cool-roofs-structures-zero-energy-consumption

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I was reading somewhere that the number of locals studying PhD's was quite rare. When you have to pay exorbitant fees to study all along the degree-chain there's a good reason why USA has dropped the ball. Universities are great when someone is paying for it. Many countries around the world help their students, not penalize them

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Yes, MarkX, I can read quite well. But when it mentioned this material that "dissipates the sun’s thermal energy in the form of infrared radiation," I just wondered how it differed from the aluminium foil mentioned.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

You don't need a new material for roof cooling, you can cool down a home now by painting the roof top white not black. Cool it down to 20 C.

Yeah right, tell that to my "roof" certainly didn't get the memo. It's white, and in summer the temps hover in the 40C to 45C in the sunlight.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

So when can they replace the wall and window AC units? ;)

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I would love to know how the physics of this new material works. It is quite in the science fiction field any material that can convert heat directly into cold, without the interference of an external force. I would say even impossible. Great achievement, by the way. It could start a tech revolution.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

It is quite in the science fiction field any material that can convert heat directly into cold

Heat cannot be converted to cold. Cold is simply the absence of heat, it's not a separate entity.

without the interference of an external force.

All it has to do is transfer heat. So if they have found a material that has a high thermodynamic index, and they can find a place to transfer the heat to, it doesn't necessarily need an external force.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

If you look at the researchers' names, it shows immigration works for America. Sadly, there's a huge portion of America that wouldn't even consider them as an American.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

This gives something of an explanation. It's rather simpleat first glance http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/cheap-plastic-film-cools-whatever-it-touches-10-c

2 ( +2 / -0 )

ThePBot, spot-on comment! Some people don't want to see the good side of diversity. They just want to blame even their bad habits, decisions, etc. on convenient scapegoats.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I don't where you guys are from, but the USA is one of the most pro-immigration countries in the world. That includes most Republicans as well. Illegal immigration and legal immigration are 2 entirely different things that many on the left can't seem to see. I'd bet a dollar to a dime that these guys came over legally.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

50 microns. Wow. For those familiar with feeler gauges, that's the thinnest (generally) in the set at 0.05mm. Half the average thickness of your average sheet of copy paper.

But i do agree with some posters that there needs to be more explanation than just material info. Laws of thermodynamics dictate you need a heat sink for the system to be actually called an air conditioner. The explanation above honestly, just indicates towards a super impressive insulation sheet.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Heat. The destroyer of cold. Wait a minute. Cold. The destroyer of... It's endlessly fascinating to me that gigantic clouds of dust finally congeal, even though they have no central gravity per se, congeal enough to form billions of stars that then sit and cook and produce so much varying types of intense radiation, for millions of years. Then they go super nova, stay that way forever, then the whole thing starts again. Makes you wonder if there were a number of big bangs that occurred in different regions of the universe instead of only one at a time for everything. Radiation. Waveform or particle. Ever wonder why anything would move in a wave form that is not moving through matter?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@Yubaru

Yeah right, tell that to my "roof" certainly didn't get the memo. It's white, and in summer the temps hover in the 40C to 45C in the sunlight.

Is that really roof temperature? What's that temp being compared to? Kirchoff's Law of thermal radiation would apply. You can find any link about the differences. I didn't have to use NASA but hey, if you can use NASA...

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ny-roofs.html from 2011.

Doesn't have to be 2011, most studies report something similar. """A new study of how different white roofing materials performed “in the field” in New York City over multiple years found that even the least expensive white roof coating reduced peak rooftop temperatures in summer by an average of 43 degrees Fahrenheit. If white roofs were implemented on a wide scale, as the city plans to do, this reduction could cut into the “urban heat island” effect that pumps up nighttime temperatures in the city by as much as 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, said the study’s lead scientist, Stuart Gaffin of Columbia University."""

Kirchoff's Law is being downvoted. M'kay. Still works though

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This sounds promising, will have to try to find more info on this stuff!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just to add to the " two Chinese researchers" comment about diversity, Britain's highest profile invention in recent years, the material graphene, was created by scientists born in the Soviet Union. Graphene is often presented in the media as an example of "British innovation".

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites