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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: June 14, 2015

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REAL LIFE NEWS: BLACK, BLACKER, BLACKEST PAINT

by Hazed

A new black paint, which could be one of the blackest materials ever*, is being developed by a research team at University of California San Diego. It’s intended use is for solar power generation.

The team are trying to make generating solar power on a large scale a lot more viable by coming up with a material that can absorb much more sunlight, and last longer, than existing coatings.

Concentrating solar power planets (CSP) use thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central tower, which is coated with a dark material which absorbs the light and converts it into intense heat. The heat creates steam, which turns turbines, and thus electricity is produced.

Right now, the coatings that absorb light don’t do a very good job – they aren’t very efficient and they can’t withstand the highest temperatures. What’s more, they don’t last very long.

The new material will improve on all those things, as Professor Renkun Chen explained: “First of all, it can absorb the light at a very high efficiency. And secondly, it can withstand very high temperatures in air, above 700 degrees Celsius. That isn’t possible with existing materials.”

This new coating uses nanotechnology to create a surface made up of layers of microscopic particles, to minimise reflection, and the research team claims that it can convert up to 90% of the sunlight it captures into heat.

If this works out it could make solar power as financially competitive as other forms of power generation.

* How much blacker could it be? In the words of the great Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap: none more black: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46kXH6GGtT0

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32931928

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