Analysis of The Advantages of Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint

White is a color that contains all wavelengths of light in the spectrum and is often considered "colorless." It has the highest brightness, resembling a clean and pure white sheet of paper.

In certain energy-saving design standards, it is recommended to use white or light-colored paints for exterior walls and roofs to reduce the heat absorption of buildings' surfaces, thus mitigating the urban heat island effect. This is because white paint has low absorption and high reflectance properties.

Apart from the typical performance characteristics of ordinary white paint, when the new insulation material aerogel is added to the aerogel thermal insulation paint, does it provide more advantages compared to regular white paint? Let’s prove the superiority of aerogel thermal insulation paint through testing.

Comparison Test

The metal box has dimensions of 400×300×300 mm.
The test sample is the top cover of the box, which uses aluminum as the base material.
Different coatings were applied to the upper surface of the cover:

1. Ordinary white paint

2. Aerogel thermal insulation paint

3. Aerogel insulation coating + aerogel thermal insulation paint system.

A halogen lamp was placed 20 cm above the box for irradiation, and thermocouples were positioned on both the upper and lower surfaces of the sample for data collection to evaluate the insulation performance of the coatings.

1. Ordinary White Paint
Upper surface: 70.1°C, Lower surface temperature: 51.1°C.

2. Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint
Upper surface: 66.2°C, Lower surface temperature: 47.2°C.

3. Aerogel Insulation Coating + Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint System
Upper surface: 87.0°C, Lower surface temperature: 38.3°C.

Summary

1. Insulating materials work by reducing the heat gain of buildings. The lower surface temperature of the sample can be understood as the inner surface of the building’s exterior wall. The effect on indoor temperature mainly occurs through convective and radiative heat transfer from the inner surface of the exterior wall. Therefore, in the comparison experiment, it is more meaningful to discuss the temperature on the lower surface of the sample.

2. Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint vs. Ordinary White Paint: The temperatures on both the upper and lower surfaces of the sample coated with aerogel thermal insulation paint are lower than those of the sample coated with ordinary white paint. This indicates that aerogel thermal insulation paint has a higher solar reflectance and near-infrared reflectance. Additionally, aerogel has a low thermal conductivity, providing thermal resistance and effectively lowering the temperature of the base material’s surface.

3. Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint vs. Aerogel Insulation Coating + Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint: Although the upper surface temperature of the sample with the aerogel insulation coating is higher, the lower surface temperature is 8.9°C lower than that of the sample with only aerogel thermal insulation paint, and 12.8°C lower than the sample with ordinary white paint. This is mainly due to the low thermal conductivity of the aerogel insulation layer, which provides thermal resistance.

4. Aerogel Thermal Insulation Paint provides efficient reflective insulation and can be combined with aerogel insulation coatings to achieve superior insulation and heat resistance performance.