Study of infrared thermal images of chameleon-type building coatings: Fid-Bau Portal

Study of infrared thermal images of chameleon-type building coatings

Ma, Yiping / Xu, Jiayi / Zhu, Beirong / Wu, Keru

As reported in this article, infrared thermal images of chameleon-type building coatings were studied. The results show that when reversibly thermochromic pigments were added to normal white building coatings, so-called chameleon-type building coatings could absorb energy from a sunlamp below a switching temperature of 20 degree C. The surface temperatures could reach almost the same value as that of a normal colorful building coating. The absorption stopped automatically above the switching temperature of 20 degree C, and the surface temperatures could be lower than that of normal colorful building coatings by about 4 degree C. The results from exposure to solar radiation show that when the temperature was below the switching temperature, the chameleon-type building coating could absorb almost the same amount of solar energy as an ordinary colorful coating. When the temperature was above the switching temperature, these coating could reflect more solar energy than the ordinary colorful coating, which was similar to the results from infrared thermal images. All the results show that there is some possibility that the chameleon-type building coatings could be used to create a thermally comfortable building environment.