Synthesizing and Characterizing the Hybrid Pigment Fe0.7Cr1.3O3 With High NIR Reflectance for Sustainable Energy Saving Applications

Today, a growing number of the world population faces a rise in the cost of living significantly increased energy costs. That is why Energy-saving has become a vital issue. One of the remarkable ways to reduce energy consumption is using cool pigments; therefore, research has been done to improve pigments' infrared reflection capability. In this paper, the role of particle morphology was investigated to boost the infrared reflection property of iron-chromium-based pigments. For this purpose, a series of inorganic pigments based on the Fe0.7Cr1.3O3 formula was prepared via a hydrothermal method. Surfactants altered the particles' morphology to improve the pigments' reflecting properties. According to the IR reflectance results, flaky particles exhibit an enhanced IR reflection, and they have significantly larger IR reflections than spherical particles. Furthermore, the results have revealed that silica coating leads to a meaningful improvement in the IR reflection property. It was found that the maximum near-infrared solar reflectance of the sample with 2.63 % succinic acid surfactant and silica coating was 52.23 % compared to that of Fe0.7Cr1.3O3, which was 25.36 %.