Highly reflecting stable white paint for the detection of ultraviolet and visible radiations.

The use of polyvinyl alcohol polymer as a binder for barium sulfate does not allow the intrinsically high reflectance of barium sulfate in the 200-300-nm range to be optimally employed. In an effort to better utilize this property, totally inorganic coating systems are described. Potassium sulfate turns out to be the preferred binder for reflectance enhancement. Compositions, formulating procedures, and application techniques are included. For completeness, absolute and relative reflectance data are included for intrasystem and intersystem comparisons.