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Science & Technology

Scientists create world's blackest material

By T.K. Randall
September 13, 2019 · Comment icon 12 comments

A diamond (left) covered in the blackest black (right). Image Credit: MIT
Engineers at MIT have accidentally created a material 10 times blacker than anything that has come before.
The peculiar material, which is comprised of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes grown on chlorine-etched aluminium foil, is capable of absorbing 99.995% of all incoming light.

It was created quite by accident during efforts to increase the electrical and thermal properties of carbon nanotubes by growing them on aluminium and other electrically conductive materials.

The material beats the previous record for 'blackness' held by Surrey NanoSystems for its creation known as 'Vantablack' which is able to absorb 99.96% of all light.
It has since been put on display in the form of a black-coated diamond in an exhibit entitled "The Redemption of Vanity" at the New York Stock Exchange.

There are however practical uses for such a material as well.

"There are optical and space science applications for very black materials, and of course, artists have been interested in black, going back well before the Renaissance," said Prof Brian Wardle.

"Our material is 10 times blacker than anything that's ever been reported, but I think the blackest black is a constantly moving target."

Source: Engadget | Comments (12)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #3 Posted by Timothy 5 years ago
It is ‘material of colour’, it is not black. Don’t want to offend the carbon nanotubes! It is cool that it is 10x blacker than Vantablack! And I liked this bit from the Engadget article: ‘and eventually we'll understand all the underlying mechanisms, and will be able to properly engineer the ultimate black.’ Would that technically be called ‘void of colour’ rather than black? If they do hit 100%?
Comment icon #4 Posted by It's Just An Opinion 5 years ago
If they do reach 100% black they should try and bounce light around it. Since that's how you make something invisible, so having the surface you're trying to make invisible not be bouncing light back out, would surely help.
Comment icon #5 Posted by Desertrat56 5 years ago
Once in the 80's a newspaper in Iowa had a headline "The City is in the African-American" because the editor did not read the story just change the word black to african-american.  It was about the city finally paying off it's debts. 
Comment icon #6 Posted by Seti42 5 years ago
Hopefully, they'll let ANY artist use it, unlike the makers of Vantablack, who signed an exclusive deal with ONE artist...
Comment icon #7 Posted by Impedancer 5 years ago
Problems only goths have finding the right black tee among all the other black tees. 
Comment icon #8 Posted by Golden Duck 5 years ago
 
Comment icon #9 Posted by acute 5 years ago
Eee by gum..... It's grim up North!
Comment icon #10 Posted by Piney 5 years ago
Ooos grim????? 
Comment icon #11 Posted by toast 5 years ago
BTW, black isnt a color. What we call black is the effect of a surface that absorbs the complete visible spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum (all of the colors to be exact).
Comment icon #12 Posted by Aye_Yer_Ma 5 years ago
It's pretty cool, the name sucks and it ain't as new as people think. They went commercial in 2014 and before that NASA had created something similar but more heat resistant.


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