Spain. With the aim of reducing maintenance costs and improving energy efficiency in sectors such as construction or automotive, the IK4-Tekniker technology center worked on a European project in charge of designing intelligent pigments that, in addition to providing color, have anticorrosive, antibacterial and thermal regulation properties.
The project has been funded by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme. The Basque technology centre, the scientific coordinator of the project, has been responsible for incorporating molecules and nanocoatings into the pigments to achieve such useful functions as anti-corrosion, repelling bacteria, preventing the proliferation of fungi, obtaining self-cleaning properties for facades and even storing heat and functioning as a thermal regulator.
Within the framework of the project, they managed to transform inorganic ceramic pigments into high-performance pigments thanks to the combination of material absorption techniques and the application of nanocoatings.
The researcher of IK4-Tekniker, Miren Blanco, assures that the pigments designed have been tested in different applications in sectors such as automotive and construction and can be incorporated into plastics, cements or paints "so that different markets are reached".
"We have found that the use of these pigments with self-cleaning capacity and heat storage in the facades of buildings leads to significant savings in maintenance and energy consumption that more than compensates for the price of the product," explains Blanco.
The researcher reports that the use of these multifunctional pigments is also useful in the rental vehicle sector, since solutions with antibacterial properties and with the ability to reflect infrared rays have been developed, which prevent the accumulation of heat and save on air conditioning.
With a budget of 4.6 million euros, the project, led by the company Nubiola Pigmentos, has had the participation of the Fiat Research Center, the Dutch dye company CPS color, the Polish university Adama Mickiewicza or the Spanish construction company Acciona Infraestructuras, as well as the developer of plastic concentrates Performance Masterbatches Limited and the consultancy Bsria of the United Kingdom.
