The whitest white paint 迄今為止最白的白色塗料

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學習要點

有關 “discoveries（發現）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

What percentage of sunlight does the new white paint reflect?

文字稿

Cool, heat-reflecting white rooms are already an urban climate solution that’s been embraced in cities around the world.

涼爽且能反射熱量的白色房間已是一種城市氣候解決方案，在世界各地的城市中得到瞭應用。

In New York, more than ten million square feet [929,000 square metres] of rooves have been coated with white heat-reflecting paint.

在紐約，超過1000萬平方英尺（92萬9千平方米）的屋頂被塗上瞭白色的熱反射塗料。

But these scientists say their ULTRA-white paint could make those rooves even cooler.

但這些科學傢表示，他們的 “超白” 塗料可以使屋頂變得更涼爽。

While the whitest currently available paints reflect between 80 and 90 per cent of sunlight, these researchers say theirs reflects more than 98 per cent.

目前可用的最白塗料可以反射80%到90%的陽光，而這些研究人員說他們的塗料能反射98%以上的陽光。

Covering a 1,000 square foot [92.9 square metre] roof with this paint, they estimate, would provide more cooling power than a typical central air conditioner.

用這種塗料漆上1000平方英尺（92.9平方米）的屋頂，據科學傢們估計，能比普通的中央空調提供更強的降溫效果。

Prof Xiulin Ruan, Purdue University
Every one per cent of reflectance you get will translate to ten watts per metre squared less heating from the Sun. So, basically, it provides cooling of 18 kilowatts. That’s really a big deal. That’s more than a typical air conditioner does for a house with the same kind of space.

阮修林教授美國普渡大學
“反射比每增加 1%，就相當於每平方米內少吸收太陽10瓦的熱能。所以基本上，這種塗料可以提供18千瓦的降溫效果。這很厲害。比普通空調在同等大小的房屋中功效還要強。”

The secret to its formulation also makes it relatively cheap to produce: the scientists used high concentrations of a compound called barium sulphate, that’s already used to make paper.

該塗料配方的秘密也使其生產成本相對低廉：科學傢們使用瞭高濃度的硫酸鋇化合物，這種化合物已被用於造紙。

Back in 2014, another group of scientists developed the blackest possible black coating, a material called ‘Vantablack’, that absorbs so much light it makes every surface look almost invisibly flat.

早在2014年，另一組科學傢就研制出瞭最黑的黑色塗層，是一種名為 “納米碳管黑體（Vantablack）” 的材料，可吸收的光線之多使每個塗層表面看起來都幾乎平坦無形。

And one museum in the US now wants to put these two breakthroughs side-by-side, displaying the whitest possible white alongside the blackest black.

美國的一傢博物館現在想把這兩個重大突破放在一起，並排展出最白的白色和最黑的黑色。