When temperatures drop, it can be tricky to judge road conditions accurately. Soon, however, some roads could give drivers clear icy warnings by turning themselves pink.
A new temperature-sensitive varnish developed by researchers at French company Eurovia can be applied to road surfaces to warn drivers about dangerous conditions. The technique might help in preventing ice-related accidents in future.
The varnish is made of a polymer containing a thermochromic pigment. The same type of coating is already used to make frozen food packaging that responds to a change in temperature . It is the first time this technology has been used to monitor the change of temperature of the road.
This winter, researchers at Eurovia tested the varnish on roads at different sites in France. They painted squares around a metre across onto the roads and observed how the normally transparent varnish turned dark pink when temperatures dropped below 1 °C (see image on top). When the temperature rose back above 2 °C, the coating became colorless.
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