As global temperatures rise and water scarcity worsens, a nanoengineered paint developed by researchers in Australia aims to tackle both \u2014 with the stroke of a brush.<\/p>\n
\nFor University of Sydney scientists Chiara Neto and Ming Chiu, these growing pressures sparked an idea: a rooftop coating that could cool buildings and harvest water from the air, according to CNN.<\/p>\n
\nThat work evolved into startup Dewpoint Innovations, founded in 2022 with ambitions beyond cooling paint to a broader rethink of how infrastructure is designed: If rooftops across a city could reflect heat and collect water, they could become part of the climate solution.<\/p>\n
\nIn a warming world, cities are becoming heat traps. Concrete and rooftops absorb the sun\u2019s energy, raising temperatures, leading to what\u2019s known as the urban heat island effect \u2014 where cities experience higher temperatures.<\/p>\n
\nThat is the first challenge Dewpoint Innovations is targeting: \u201cOur paint will significantly reduce the heat load the sun puts on cities,\u201d said Chiu, co-inventor and chief technology officer at Dewpoint Innovations.<\/p>\n
\nTo achieve that effect, the specially engineered nanomaterials use a process called passive radiative cooling to reflect most of the sun\u2019s energy and release heat back into the sky \u2014 allowing roof surfaces to stay cooler than the surrounding air without using energy.<\/p>\n
\nTypical commercial white paint reflects around 70% to 80% of incoming sunlight, said Distinguished Professor Baohua Jia, a nanotech expert at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, who is unaffiliated with Dewpoint Innovations.<\/p>\n
\nDewpoint\u2019s coating demonstrated solar reflectance of up to 96% in a six-month outdoor trial reported in 2025.<\/p>\n
\nThat higher reflectivity means less heat was absorbed, keeping roof surfaces up to 6 degrees Celsius cooler than the surrounding air and <\/p>\n