The Environmental Inorganic Chemistry and Ceramic Materials Group of the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) in Castellón, Spain, has developed a research project to assess, transfer and exploit refreshing and photo-catalytic pigments (cool pigments) with a base of Scheelite that are used to decrease the temperature of buildings and also to absorb part of the environmental pollution.
The research personnel have conducted efficacy tests of the pigments in the last few months, on the rooftop of the UJI's Higher School of Technology and Experimental Sciences, with financing by the Valencian Agency for Innovation (AVI), where they have observed that the photo-catalytic pigments used were able to decrease air pollution by almost 20%, specially regarding nitrous oxides, volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide.
The team also tested refreshing pigments with high infrared reflectance, rejecting the infrared radiation rays from the buildings and thus decreasing the temperature of the surface by around three degrees while preventing the urban heat island effect, which is when dark, asphalted surfaces from cities absorb the solar energy and then release it slowly, causing the temperature of urban areas to be higher than that of its surroundings, as well as increasing the probability of smogs (polluting clouds) to appear.
The project has been developed by researchers Guillermo Monrós, Vicente Esteve and Mario Llusa with the collaboration of Arnau Monrós and Sara Cerro from the Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry of Castellón's public university.
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