Improvement of spacecraft white thermal control coatings using the new synthesized Zn-MCM-41 pigment

Thermal control coatings (TCCs) play an important role in thermal management of spacecrafts and satellites by their thermo-optical properties including low solar absorptance (alpha s) and high thermal emittance (epsilon(t)). In this research, two novel TCCs were prepared by incorporating the pre-synthesized MCM-41 and Zn-MCM-41 into the potassium silicate binder. The results of solar absorptance measurement show that both prepared coatings are able to reflect almost all UV radiation and therefore they are much less susceptible to solar radiations than conventional TCCs. In addition to, the lower pigment to binder ratio (PBR) and dry film thickness (DFT) are attainable with these novel TCCs, that finally lead to weight reduction, improvement of mechanical properties and lower porosity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.