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So think of Rust as complete garbage.

Somebody needs to spray this in your eyes.

I didn't research so forgive my ignorance

It gets this property from its fine surface structure, which is a forest of tubes. Incoming light has to be reflected many times before it gets back out, so a black material is effectively made even less reflective. It's the optical-scale version of the pointed absorbers used in anechoic chambers.

It probably is not going to retain its blackness when exposed to water, dirt, or wear. Superhydrophobic coatings such as Never Wet have the same problem - they work because they're composed of tiny points, so droplets of liquid don't have a surface they can grab. But after some wear, the effect stops working. (See any of the many "NeverWet fails" videos on YouTube.)

This is likely to be great for protected environments, such as inside optical systems. It should be useful for optical sensors in space, too. But it's probably an inherently fragile surface. That limits its uses. (The "stronger than steel" probably refers to the individual carbon nanotubes, not the bulk material.)

This s a problem with a lot of surface chemistry stuff touted as "nanomaterials". They have interesting surface properties, but the surfaces are fragile, because they're some very thin surface layer with an unusual structure. If you protect that structure with some coating, you lose the effect.

A material that does this has been sold in the US since 2013. The consumer version is Rust-Oleum Never-Wet. When new, the surface really will not retain water or mud. But the Rust-Oleum product doesn't provide a tough surface, and the effect doesn't last if the surface is touched or rubbed much.

It might make sense for cars. For this to work, you need a surface that you want clean, gets dirty, but isn't a working surface. That's a car body.

What you want is some light-ablating technology. Simply cover all light-porous surfaces (windows, dome light covers, riders' cell phones) with this amazing light-absorbing tech, and your camera problems will be yesterday!

http://www.rustoleum.com/en/product-catalog/consumer-brands/auto/specialty-paints/matte-finish

yes it does. This "special" paint has been available for years now at home depot. But instead of aluminum it's iron. It's "magnetic paint" for making kids walls allow magnets to stick. three coats of this stuff in a room and it's dead except for the windows. (Paint the door and jamb too) aluminum screens and storm windows turns the room into a faraday cage. close the door and wifi in the house disappears, cellphone coverage in the room is 0 bars..

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=127

Glad to see the BBC is way behind the times on this.

You know it also comes in a new convenient spray can!

http://www.rustoleum.com/product.asp?frm_product_i d=644&SBL=1

painted my daughters room with it OVER 3 YEARS AGO and it does the exact same thing. we lost cellphone coverage in that room (aluminum screens and storm windows complete the circuit)

The overpriced paint mentioned in that article and I have see elsewhere for the tinfoil-hat crowd is no better than the el-cheapo rustoleium primer applied as 3 coats so that fridge magnets happily adhere to the wall.

Or maybe this will work. It should scale well to any size material and it can cover just about any type of surface as well. Your quality is only limited by your skills.

Sorry I just couldn't resist this one folks :-) But seriously, why does everything have to be robotics? People are cheap today also with unemployment soaring.

What I ended up with was a surprisingly good looking black case that goes extremely well with the rest of my equipment.

Anyone capable of putting together a computer from scratch really should be able to paint one as well. It's amazingly easy.

-S