JU Electrical Alum Prof. Debashis Chanda (’98) Created Energy-saving Butterfly-inspired Colors

09 June 2023

 

Prof. Debashis Chanda (JU Alum of 1998, Electrical Engineering) is in the news headlines across the major scientific news as well as conventional global media outlets. Prof. Chanda and his research team at the University of Central Florida (UCF) developed environmentally friendly colors from aluminum particles. Impact of the paints is enormously significant. Their discovery includes development of vivid colors using colorless nano-structured aluminum flakes and a polymer. The different combinations create hundreds of vivid colors that would claim to never fade away for centuries. The nano-structure flakes reflect almost 100% of the light creating very bright and angle independent colors. The flakes can be mixed to form Paint, Cosmetics, Plastics, etc.

 

The research was published in one of the most reputed journals in the world – ‘Science Advances’ in March 2023. Since then, an astonishing number of news media has covered this invention across the world. During our recent conversation with Prof. Chanda, he told us that the aluminum particles reflect the entire infrared spectrum. Therefore, the inside of the painted objects would be cooler. The team claims that while a Boeing 747 airplane requires 500 kg of conventional paint, this newly invented ultralight paint would require only about 1.3 kg, and would keep the painted surface 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit cooler compared to other commercial paints.

 

According to UCF website, a highly reproducible self-assembling technique was used where aluminum particles are formed through a temperature- and pressure-dependent thin-film growth mechanism in an ultra-high vacuum electron beam evaporator. The process of forming a self-assembled plasmonic surface is compatible with and takes on the scattering properties of underlying arbitrary substrates. The result is a completely diffusive, angle-independent and flexible plasmonic color surface.

 

Prof. Chanda is a full-professor in the NanoScience Technology Center at UCF. He also co-founded a startup company, named e-Skin Displays. The startup has been commercializing his lab’s discoveries. Prof. Chanda wishes to commercialize this paint via his startup. The GJUAF team thanks him for making JU proud and wishes him the best for commercialization of the paint.

 

Ref:

 

Ultralight plasmonic structural color paint "https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf7207 ">

 

Self-assembled plasmonics for angle-independent structural color displays with actively addressed black states "https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2001435117">

 

Butterflies Inspire Paint Without Pigments"https://www.forbes.com/.../butterflies-inspire-paint.../... ">

 

This Is the Lightest Paint in the World"https://www.wired.com/story/lightest-paint-in-the-world/">

 

UCF Researcher Creates World’s First Energy-saving Paint – Inspired by Butterflies"https://www.ucf.edu/.../ucf-researcher-creates-worlds.../">

 

Researchers create world's first energy-saving paint—inspired by butterflies"https://phys.org/.../2023-03-world-energy-saving...">

 

This Jadavpur University Alumnus Has Created World’s First Energy Saving Paint And Other Amazing Stuff"https://www.cnbctv18.com/.../jadavpur-alumnus-debashis...">

 

e-Skin Displays:"http://www.eskindisplays.com/">

 

Prof. Debashis Chanda’s Lab:"https://www.nanoscience.ucf.edu/chanda/index.php">