Apple patent suggests borrowing some Vantablack tricks for black MacBooks

Before starting to make all of its laptops out of aluminum, Apple offered MacBooks with a matte black finish that until now has been difficult to replicate on its all-metal computers. But a new patent suggests that Apple has found a way to gives its latest MacBooks a matte black finish using a smart technique that traps and prevents light from bouncing off their surface.

If you’ve bought a MacBook recently, you know the closest thing to murdering it is Apple Space Gray Option which is dark, but far from black. The problem is that in order to apply a colored finish to an aluminum device, its surface must undergo an anodizing process to provide a more adhesive surface on which the pigments adhere. As Apple points out in patent no. 20200383224, anodized metals have a glossy finish and because of all the light they reflect, a black paint job ends up looking like dark gray instead.

There is, however, a way to create a crisp matte black finish on almost any object, as discovered by a UK company called Surrey NanoSystems. Its Vantablack paint is made from microscopic carbon nanotubes capable of trapping and absorbing over 99.97% of the visible light that hits it, making the finish look so dark it’s completely invisible to the human eye. In 2018, a visitor to the museum famous fallen into a hole painted with the Vantablack material which looked more like a large black dot on the floor. The problem for Apple is that in 2016 artist Anish Kapoor has obtained the exclusive rights to use Vantablack, which means the company can’t use it on their MacBooks. What Anish Kapoor doesn’t own exclusively, however, is the science of how Vantablack works, and that’s what Apple researchers are working to recreate using other methods.

Through a process that involves anodizing the surface of a metal substrate (the aluminum cover of a MacBook, for example), infusing colored particles into the microscopic pores of the resulting metal oxide layer, and then to apply a final layer of light absorbing elements, the reflectivity of the metal surface must be considerably reduced. An example of this last step described in the patent is to etch a series of irregular peaks and valleys, varying in height by only two micrometers, which cause the light to remain trapped and bounce in random directions to create a more diffuse reflection that has a duller mat appearance to the human eye.

Without a brilliant shine, the built-in colored pigments, like black, would have a more pronounced appearance, so Apple would no longer be limited to Space Gray as its darkest dye option. Would the dark finish be as dramatic in appearance as Vantablack which is so dark that it hides all the physical characteristics of an object? No, but Apple probably doesn’t want that either given how much it enjoys promoting its design prowess and letting the physical characteristics of its devices stand out. Rather, it would be a middle-of-the-road approach that borrows some of Vantablack’s techniques so that future iPhones and MacBooks retain the strength and durability of their aluminum frames, but could offer brightly colored options like Apple’s fruit-themed iMacs. of yesteryear.