Highly reflective titania nanoparticle-based coating

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reflective properties of titania (TiO2) nanoparticle-based coating. Design/methodology/approach - TiO2 nanoparticles, synthesised by sol-gel method, were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis). The coating material has been prepared by dispersing titania nanoparticles in an acrylic binder with different pigment to binder weight ratio. The reflectors were prepared by applying this coating material to different coating thicknesses to aluminium sheets. Findings - In the study reported here, the coating material could produce reflectors with diffuse reflectance, similar to 99 per cent, using coating material, having binder by weight ratio between 14 and 20 per cent, and thickness, 0.15 mm. On exposing the developed reflectors to different levels of illumination (upto 20,000 lux), they were still found to have diffuse reflectance of more than 96 per cent almost throughout the visible spectrum. Practical implications - The fabricated reflectors find applications in commercial optical products, such as: reflective panels, luminaries, etc. Originality/value - As of today, the reflective coatings used are of conventional type, which employ bulk TiO2 particles. In this study, we are reporting TiO2 nanoparticle-based highly reflective coating. This is an original work, and, to the best of our knowledge, no one has ever reported on TiO2 nanoparticle-based reflective coatings.