It is hard to believe, but smog is soaked up by this new paint, which was first made available in Europe last March. Ecopaint, developed by Millenium Chemicals of England, collects the nitrogen oxides in polluted air when applied to a building's exterior. Then, with the ultraviolet radiation of the sun, the noxious pollutants are converted to harmless nitric acid, which is washed away by rain...
on the other hand, wikipedia tells us "One use for nitric acid is in a colorometric test to tell the difference between heroin and morphine." could be very handy.
"harmless nitric acid"??
isn't nitric acid the acid in "acid rain"?
not sure that I would want puddles of nitric acid outside my house
Every building in my former neighborhood will be painted with this stuff, so that the city can drug-test the mendicants as they lie in the gutters!
i had the same thought, nico. but maybe nitric acid in water has to be in greater quantities than the NOX in air to cause problems. Or something. At least they're trying!
I had heard about this somewhere before, I need to get into environmental design because I'm giddy about the possibilities of this paint...but then again I wonder, what kind of VOCs does this paint give off when you put it on? Does that negate the good it does?
Skywaykate, I spent far too much time with Millenium's Web site this morning, trying to answer that very question. Problem is, I can't find that paint on it! Millenium makes a number Titanium Oxide additives that are used in a variety of paints, including low-VOC formulas, and that aren't particularly hazardous by themselves.
Millenium was bought by a U.S. company called Lyondell in 2005, so I'm wondering if the Ecopaint product was not pursued after that point.
This stuff is actually pretty good, turns those nasty NOx gases, which you really dont want to be breathing in! Into nitric acid on the surface of the wall. If theres calcium carbonate, which there is in the paint, it will convert to calcium nitrate, which is fine. If there isnt, then it will from nitric acid, in very small quantites on the wall and will be washed away with teh rain.
Remember, if the NOx gases arent converted on teh wall, then ppl will breath the stuff in, which is very bad, and it will form nitric acid in the atmosphere anyway, and will rain somewhere in the form of acid rain. So the nitric acid is going to form regardless, besides, in the quantites we are talking about, it wont even be noticable.
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ooh, hot science talk. thank you, AT.
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