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Thursday, a team of MIT engineers announced that they created a material that absorbs 99.995% of the light that reaches it, making it even darker than the captivating Surrey NanoSystems Vantablack, which absorbs 99.965% of the light.
But what is perhaps even more remarkable than the light absorption capabilities of the new super black material lies in the way the MIT team discovered it: by accident.
In an effort to enhance some of the properties of electrically conductive materials, the MIT team removed the aluminum oxide layer and started producing carbon nanotubes there.
"I remember having noticed how black it was before growing carbon nanotubes, and then after growing, it seemed even darker," said researcher Kehang Cui. MIT News. "Then I thought I should measure the optical reflectance of the sample."
That's when the team discovered that it had created the world's newest black material, which it detailed in a study published in the journal Materials and interfaces applied to ACS Thursday.
MIT researchers almost immediately joined forces with artist Diemut Strebe to donate a $ 2 million diamond at an art show on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
The MIT team has since offered the material to all interested artists. But the substance could have many non-art applications, such as helping astronomers eliminate unwanted glare from telescopes.
As dark as this material is, researcher Brian Wardle does not expect him to retain the title of blackest black forever.
"I think the darkest black is a constantly moving target," he said. MIT News. "Someone will find a darker material and eventually we will understand all the underlying mechanisms and we will be able to properly design the ultimate black."
READ MORE: MIT engineers develop the "blackest" material to date[[[[MIT News]
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