Red cars will be faster than green ones?

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In the near future we will be able to change the color of a car instantly. Does it means that police will have easier job?

Nanotechnology is all around us for some time now, but these days it is hot topic among the scientist, researchers and their wannabe colleagues. The application if nanotechnology ranges from light-powered computers to cure for cancer to new materials we never imagined.

One of the applications, so say scientists from Nissan, is the car paint that will change at a touch of a button. The new material that is under development for few years now is called paramagnetic paint. The idea, as any other great idea, is very simple: A material that will change its properties in magnetic field. And now scientist and engineers succeeded. On the car's galvanized automotive sheet metal steel a new kind of polymer is applied. New polymer has super-paramagnetic iron oxide particles in it. Those particles of iron oxide, also known as magnetite, are of nano-scale dimensions and they can be controlled by magnetic field. That magnetic field will affect the spacing of crystals so they will change the way they reflect the light. To put it simply: Change the magnetic field and you'll see different color.

The new coating for our future cars is good for number of reasons. It need a very small amount of magnetic charge, so we should have no fear that magnet will mess up instruments in our car. The coating will reproduce all the colours in the spectrum, so there will be "one coating for all". The time needed for color shifting is one second, that means almost instantaneously. And the most important thing is the new coating is cheap and non-toxic.

Scientists made some tests. They protected a new polymer with a protective coat and did a series of testing to see how paramagnetic paint will behave. The results are very good: Color is consistent and uniform on whole car surface and it can eve stand some bends and damages. Those test led them to conclusion that 2010 will be the year that will se the first models of multicoloured cars.

So, what will be the benefits of that new material? Well, it probably won't bring piece to the world, but those double minded car buyers will spend less time trying to decide which color to choose. Then, it would be fun to change the color while driving. For example, white while driving to the bank, and red while driving home. With a bag full of cash on the back seat and watching how police looks for the white car.

But police could benefit from that new technology, too. They could propose the law that says: The car slower than 50 km/h must be white, those driving 50 - 80 must be green, and those driving faster than 80 must be red. And they life would be much easier. They would stop you and say: "OK, mister, you are bit reddish now, please slow down."

Good for the police, but what about me? I like red cars...

November 11, 2007

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