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In terms of painting, all shades of black are not identical. You can buy a spray of matte black spray paint at the hardware store and absorb the light, but if you really want the blackest possible black, you must enter the world of high-tech carbon nanotubes.
For years, scientists have been experimenting with tiny carbon structures that, when properly arranged, can absorb an incredible amount of light. MIT researchers have developed a new material capable of capturing 99.995% of incoming light, making it the darkest black on the planet.
In a new article published in Materials and interfaces applied to ACS, the MIT research team explains that, while they seem to have created the darkest material of all time, they have not even really tried to do it.
The team focused on growing carbon nanotubes on aluminum, which can be difficult because of the reaction of aluminum when exposed to air. Using salt to break down a thick oxidation layer on the surface of the aluminum, the team achieved its goal. That's when she noticed how dark aluminum was when it was covered with tiny nanotubes.
"I remember seeing how black it was before producing carbon nanotubes, and then after growing, it looked even darker," said co-author Kehang Cui in a statement. . "Then I thought I should measure the optical reflectance of the sample."
After measuring the material's ability to reflect light, they realized they had come up with something extraordinary, surpassing all the other super-black materials created in recent years. Vantablack, a coating that also uses carbon nanotubes attached to thin layers of material such as aluminum, absorbs approximately 99.96% of the incoming light.
Researchers expect this record to be defeated sooner than expected, calling it a "moving target." It is nevertheless an impressive achievement by a team of scientists who do not even intend to achieve it.
Source of image: R. Capanna, A. Berlato and A. Pinato
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