Professor Bumjoon Kim's research project is to develop naturally shaped polymeric particles that can change color at each stimulus to detect changes in the outside environment, such as temperature, light, gas, and pressure, with paint materials used in buildings or paints. It has a more stable luminescent property than the existing chromatic dye, which reduces luminescence due to photobleaching by structural color derived from polymer particle nanostructure.

In addition, compared to existing liquid crystals whose reflectance is limited to 50%, the particles of this study can expect a high reflectance approaching 100% in a pure solid state, depending on the alignment of the internal nanostructure. A generally known paint is a mixture of multiple components composed of polymer particles and various surfactants, binders, pigments, and the like.

On the other hand, the technology of this project is capable of producing paints composed only of polymer particles and thus has excellent differentiation in terms of simplification and functionality of paint composition. In addition, since the technology based on the emulsion method makes polymer particles in an aqueous solution, it is not harmful to the environment and can be easily applied to the existing paint manufacturing process for easy commercialization and cost reduction.