Zn2SiO4 as an ultralow solar absorptive pigment for thermal control coating

Passive thermal control coatings (TCCS) have been widely used to tune the thermal equilibrium of spacecraft. However, the performance of such coatings undergoes serious degradation due to the intensive UV absorption and the radiation damage of the pigments. We developed a Zn 2 SiO 4 pigment with a solar absorptance (α s ) as low as 0.078, which shows a distinctly high reflectance in the whole solar-radiation spectrum, especially in the high energy UV wavebands. Furthermore, after performing proton irradiation , the α s of ZnO, ZnTiO 3 pigments increase from 0.153 and 0.101 to 0.277 and 0.521, respectively, while Zn 2 SiO 4 rises to 0.212, which exhibits remarkable radiation resistance. We evidenced that Zn 2 SiO 4 pigments will not only significantly boost the performance of thermal control coatings but also be beneficial for UV shielding applications.