This chapter consists of two parts. In the first one a brief historical overview of
the development of solar paint coatings is given together with the basic principles that
make paint coatings spectrally selective. Distinctive properties of Thickness Sensitive
Spectrally Selective (TSSS) and Thickness Insensitive Spectrally Selective (TISS) are
outlined and the use of the latter paint coatings as cool paints is proposed and
demonstrated. Materials’ aspects of the colored cool TISS paint coatings are given by the
description of cool pigments, metallic and metallized flake pigments and polymeric resin
binders which are used for the production of solar paint coatings. Second part contains
information about the chemistries of the paint production showing how to achieve with the
help of dispersant molecules uniform distribution of the finely ground pigment particles in
the polymeric resin binder. Intentionally, we focused on organo (silicon) i.e. silane
dispersants because they enable the stabilization of many different nanoparticle systems
and also commercial pigments. Basics of the sol-gel chemistry of silanes are given and the
preparation of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) molecules is described and the
dispersive effect of the latter on pigments demonstrated. The importance of the POSS
molecules representing a new multifunctional nanocomposite materials is revealed by
describing paints and lacquers with hydrophobic and oleophobic properties and the
possibility to attain anti-soiling properties of cool paints is also discussed.
Keywords: Spectral selectivity, absorbers, building facades, paint formulation,
lifetime prediction, cool paints, cool pigments, silan dispersant, polyhedral
oligomeric silsesquioxanes, thermal emissivity, solar absorptivity, TISS, TSSS.
