Super Paint Part I

There is something riveting about colors. The right paint on the right location sets moods, tone, and states personal tastes. What more can we ask for from our paint? What about function? Aside from looking prettily on the walls of our home, our vehicles, business buildings, bridges, décor, pavement, on signs, can it do more for us? Yes, it can!

There are paints that help insulate, create protective barriers, and even generate electrical energy. Most of us know about “eco-friendly” low vapor paint, or inorganic paints (long lasting pants often used in concrete, cement, natural stone, marbles and so forth) but not a lot of us know about how paint can work for us, aside from helping to sell our houses. There are paints that changes colors according to the season to keep a painted building insulated year round. There are paint to keep out mold and then there are paints that produce electricity.

Heard of photovoltaic paint or solar paint? Paints that can generate electricity equivalent to 50 wind farms. WOW! Dr Dave Worsley and Dr. Trystan Watson of Swansea University in the United Kingdom (UK) have been working with Corus, a steel, company in the UK to fine tune the cost effective use and increased efficiency of dye-sensitized cells.

How does it work?

“The paint will be based on dye-sensitized solar cells. Instead of absorbing sunlight using silicon like conventional solar panels, they use dye molecules attached to particles of the titanium dioxide pigment used in paints.

That gives an energy boost to electrons, which hop from the dye into a layer of electrolyte. This then transfers the extra energy into a collecting circuit, before the electrons cycle back to the dye.

While less efficient than conventional cells, dye-based cells do not require expensive silicon, and can be applied as a liquid paste” (New Scientist).

More explanation on this working principle and diagram see Polymer Centret.