After experiencing my first proper snowfall in London, which oddly occurred just last week when we’re already halfway through spring and into daylight savings time, I spotted an article on New Scientist that may help in these types of icy conditions.
A French company called Eurovia has developed a thermochromic paint that changes colour when conditions are icy on roads. At temperatures below one degree centigrade the paint changes from transparent to a dark pink colour. The developers hope that this will help improve road safety and make gritting roads more efficient during icy weather.
The paint uses the property of thermochromism- the ability to change colour dependent on temperature. I’m sure a lot of people (myself included) are most familiar with thermochromism in gimmicky products like the hypercolour t-shirt fad of the 90s, or mood rings. The pigments that cause the colour shift are sensitive to UV radiation, so there will probably be more work needed to make the ice-detector paint more durable for road use.
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