A new material that converts sunlight into heat could someday melt ice off airplane wings, wind turbines and rooftops, Maria Temming reported in “A new material harnesses light to deice surfaces” (SN: 9/29/18, p. 17).
“What happens when the object (such as an airplane wing) to which the material has been applied is subjected to the sun on a hot summer day?” asked online reader Nell Kroeger. “Could the object dangerously overheat?”
The material can heat up to tens of degrees Celsius above the ambient temperature, says Susmita Dash, an engineer at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. A coated airplane wing on a hot summer day will heat up, she says, but “I don’t think it will reach a dangerously high temperature.”