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Engineers Create the Blackest Material Yet (phys.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the doesn't-show-dirt dept.

schwit1 writes: Researchers have created the least reflective material ever made, using as inspiration the scales on the all-white cyphochilus beetle. The result was an extremely tiny nanoparticle rod resting on an equally tiny nanoparticle sphere (30 nm diameter) which was able to absorb approximately 98 to 99 percent of the light in the spectrum between 400 and 1,400nm, which meant it was able to absorb approximately 26 percent more light than any other known material — and it does so from all angles and polarizations.

3 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Vantablack anyone? by Slyswede · · Score: 5, Informative

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Just sayin...

    1. Re:Vantablack anyone? by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Black is an interesting color.

      Black paint absorbs 90-95% of light, the military has Z306 that absorbs 96% of light (and is used for paint as well as coatings for telescopes). NASA has developed materials that absorb 99.95% of light, and Vantablack is 99.965%. The ultimate black is of course, a black hole which absorbs all light (barring quantum phenomena that results in hawking radiation).

      The human eye cannot comprehend sucn black - since our black objects all reflect significant amounts of light back. Looking at Vantablack or this, your mind actually sees a hole and doesn't register that there's something there.

      The American Chemical Society better explains this...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  2. Re: Solar Thermal Applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, at least not for home water or space heating. There the efficiency is energy gained from the Sun less energy lost to reradiation. The best materials for that job are 'selective', meaning that they are very black in the frequencies the Sun radiates the most and very shiny (low emissivity) in the infrared frequencies that a solar panel would reradiate the most.