There's a New Blackest Material Ever, and It's Eating a Diamond As We Speak

That's the title of the Article posted by Live Science.

A new exhibition in New York turns a sparkling yellow diamond (left) into a veritable black hole (right) thanks to the blackest material ever created.

This time the scientists are doing the heavy lifting. Working with artist Diemut Strebe, a team of researchers from MIT covered the shimmering yellow diamond in a newly discovered type of carbon nanotube coating that turns 3D objects into black, almost 100% light-free voids. 

According to the researchers, who described the coating in a study published Sept. 12 in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, this newfound nanotube structure is the blackest of black materials ever created, absorbing more than 99.996% of any light that touches it.

The team created the new coating accidentally, while trying to design an improved process for growing carbon nanotubes (essentially, microscopically small strings of carbon) on surfaces like aluminum foil. One problem with working with aluminum, they found, is that a layer of oxides formed whenever the surface was exposed to open air, creating a pesky chemical barrier between the nanotubes and the foil. To eliminate these oxides, the team soaked the foil in saltwater, then moved it into a small oven where the nanotubes could grow without oxygen interference.

With millions of tangled nanotubes now studding the foil like a microscopic forest of fur, incoming photons of light got lost and had a very hard time exiting from the foil's surface. The foil, the team found, had thus turned completely black — so black, the ridges of the aluminum were completely invisible when viewed straight on.

Cui and colleagues compared the reflectiveness of their new coating with other light-devouring nanostructures, including the previous record holder for darkness, Vantablack. While the differences between the various nanostructures are negligible to human eyes, the researchers found that their coating was indeed blacker than every other black they tested, no matter the angle at which light hit the coating.

Sounds exciting, yet also terrifying. I wonder what kind of studies they might possibly use this for and what will be the outcome of it. I love an accidental new scientific breakthrough.

Can't they develop something that doesn't eat away other materials. This is going to be a horror movie now. Oh the Horror of darkness! Lights out guys! Your flash lights will not save you anymore.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

I saw a sports car covered in Vantablack.
The damn thing would be dangerous to drive at night, considering other vehicles headlights won’t even see the thing..

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

So science has replicated the color of my ex-husband's soul...

~shudder~

This black matter lives! is it black goo?

news.artnet.com... this was a twist i was not expecting when googling the paint

Anish Kapoor Owns the Rights to the Blackest Color Ever Made. So Another Artist Made His Own Superblack—and Now It’s Even Blacker Anyone is allowed to use Stuart Semple's new Black 3.0—except Kapoor.

i never thought about some one owning a color before

www.topspeed.com...

Granted, there’s probably a pinch of hyperbole attached to that claim. That’s often the case when someone haphazardly throws superlatives around. But, best I can tell, there’s nothing haphazard about the Vantablack VBx2 coating. The color, according to BMW, was created as an alternative to all the swirly camouflage wraps we often see on prototypes. The goal, also according to BMW, is to create a cover to make the company’s future prototype vehicles — the same ones we see on the road and the subjects of all the spy photos we take and receive — impossible to discern.

so i guess the hard to see aspect was a feature not a bug

edit to add wouldn't this paint make LIDAR guns not work at all or at least camouflage speed? making these kind of nifty for those that like to speed from time to time (says it absorbs 99% of light and those guns use light i think?) and i think they have laser speed guns now........

So were do all the photons go?

The article claims that the light (which consists of photons) “gets lost” in the forest of carbon nanotubes.

But the photons are not destroyed by the nanotubes.

Do they just “wander around” in that forest forever?

How many photons can be “lost” in that forest at any one time?

When/how is that 0.004% of the light not absorbed, reflected/detected?

a reply to: Bhadhidar

They get turned into heat. They are still photons. Just not in the visible part of the spectrum.

If you could do something like that in the microwave range, you'd be in for a lot of money...

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

Here is the link to Vantablack...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The CNTs are vertically aligned, like a forest, so photons enter but can’t reflect off any surface. The CNTs radiate it back as heat.

Photos don’t it justice! The people who have seen it say it looks like the hole Wile E. Coyote would paint on the canyon wall! It has no surface and appears flat.

The same thing is happening here. In a vacuum, the “fuel” that is burnt is applied via CVD. The resulting CNTs dense pack in like a forest and the light entering the “forest” never bounces off the forest floor. By treating the aluminum with sea water it turns it black too.

Black on black
Hit the sack
Been so long it’s glad to be back...

One of the most interesting things I've ever done was a super-secret study of the color black. I would have never known some of this. We had to sign all sorts of NDA's (all expired now) in order to see it. Still, I can't mention the company who provided the demonstration. I can say a little bit about it though...

We sat in a dark room, in front of a silver impregnated screen (the notorious "silver screen" (seriously)). They turned out the lights and started projecting colors on the screen. They got to the color black (what the whole presentation was about), and projected it on the screen. They asked us (all 5 of us) what color it was. Unanimously, we all said black.

They then turned up the lights in the room, and asked us again what color it was. Still black. They then turned off the projection and asked us what color we saw. It was a bluish silver in the dim light. They then correctly pointed out, much to our shock, that the color projected on the bluish silver screen can never be darker than the screen it's projected upon, because the screen itself reflects the projected light (the black projected light). Now, think about that one for a second!!!

It was an illusion. Black is a concept, not something you can see. An illusion most do not understand.

This particular company was in the process of marketing a new projection technology, one which will blow most people's minds, and the only reason "you" haven't seen it yet is for exactly this reason...because it might really, actually, "blow" your mind!!

True black is invisible. You can NOT see it. If it reflects light...it's not black (it only "looks" like it's black).

True black is a hole, and frankly if Schrodinger was really smart, he would have asked if the 'true black' object was really there (rather than messing around with cats).

The OP has posed a fairly good example. Notice the background...it's not black (though it looks that way). The object, on the other hand, is near black, though not fully. It's close, but it's not black. When you see true black, it will shock you!!!!!

One of the most interesting (and disturbing) studies I have ever witnessed in my life!! Seriously!

I've seen black once, and it scared me!! I'm serious too!

When you see black on your computer, you can only see it because there is light behind it projecting your perceived concept of black at your eyes. If it was true black, your computer wouldn't be able to project it, because it doesn't exist to project!

Again, think about that for a moment!!

What you and I see as "black" is nothing even close to true black!!

NOTE - Now imagine a black hole, where not even light can escape. It's not something you will even be able to perceive as existing, and you definitely won't "see" it.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

That is so interesting.
Perhaps our own eyes prevent us from experiencing total black, due to the retina's noise background never being completely quiet. Like the lowest gain control on a video CCD.

a reply to: charlyv

I think that it might be stereo optic vision where our eyes slightly shift back and forth to see depth. The brain filters the shifting out of your observation (unless you ingest some kind of hallucinogenic drug that makes you aware of this filter). Since there’s no surface for your normal experience to track, your brain “helps” you overlook meaningless data.

Your eyes are only the apertures. The brain does the interpretation. And it is all based on what you have experienced before. Which is why UFOs are such a problem.

It is like trying to explain to someone that you love your mom.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: charlyv

I think that it might be stereo optic vision where our eyes slightly shift back and forth to see depth. The brain filters the shifting out of your observation (unless you ingest some kind of hallucinogenic drug that makes you aware of this filter). Since there’s no surface for your normal experience to track, your brain “helps” you overlook meaningless data.

Your eyes are only the apertures. The brain does the interpretation. And it is all based on what you have experienced before. Which is why UFOs are such a problem.

It is like trying to explain to someone that you love your mom.

In a nutshell, that is the noise I am talking about. Our own senses operate above zero noise levels in order to function. We may never be able to negate that.

Back in the early days of Radar, COAC (clutter operated anti-clutter) was a breakthrough in internal noise cleanup. It used gaussian techniques to generate a kind of "anti-noise", and introduce it into the system thus seriously reducing all noise. We would have to build this into our brains, as it is an internal process.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Well considering black is not really a color in true form its an absence of it completely you're right, you won't see it. Not so sure I'd be scared of it as I have experienced it...inside a cave past a certain point the is literally no light except what you brought in. When I was younger I went spelunking and part of the trip around lunch was to show us what it would be like...all the lights go off and you literally can't see as if you are blind...because our eyes only work when light is present...thats an easy way to experience true black for yourself. Sensory deprivation chambers also simulate this.

a reply to: RickyD

a reply to: Macenroe82

I'm surprised it was legal to get the car painted that Vantablack, it's a stealthy metal death trap now!

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

I usually rely on my headlights to illuminate things other than cars (which quite often have lights of their own). When some fool forgets to turn on their lights, my headlights don't really help make them more visible.

a reply to: Lumenari


Lol.. My apologies.

a reply to: tulsi

It's some kind of hoo-ha.