With apologies to “Spinal Tap,” it appears that black can, indeed, get more black.
MIT engineers report today that they have cooked up a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs — microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures more than 99.96 percent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Engineers develop ‘blackest black’ material to date: Made from carbon nanotubes, the new coating is 10 times darker than other very black materials.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 September 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190913080742.htm>.
