This is actually important not least because it has been unacheivable. As this makes clear, the effect on optics alone will be important. This will hold true even for every day applications. Reflection is always an issue and this makes it almost disappear.
This will also allow highly
efficient light absorbing heat exchangers to possibly drive energy
systems.
This is all good and we will see
it in the market place.
NEW
SUPER-BLACK, LIGHT-ABSORBING MATERIAL LOOKS LIKE A HOLE IN REALITY
Written By: Arlington
Hewes
Posted: 07/19/14 8:00 AM
UK nanotechnology
company, Surrey NanoSystems, has created what they say
is the darkest material known to man. Vantablack consists of a dense
forest of carbon nanotubes—single atom carbon tubes 10,000 times
thinner than a human hair—that drinks in 99.96% of all incoming
radiation.
First announced last
year, the material is a deep, featureless black even when folded and
scrunched. “You expect to see the hills and all you can see…it’s
like black, like a hole, like there’s nothing there. It just looks
so strange,” Ben Jensen, the firm’s chief technical officer, told
the Independent.
A number of other
groups have been working to make super-black materials from carbon
nanotubes in recent years. A prime application for the material is in
sensitive optical equipment, like telescopes. A NASA Goddard team,
led by John Hagopian, has been developing nanotube materials since
2007.
To make
the super-black material, they lay down a catalyst layer of iron
oxide and then, in an 1,832 degree-Fahrenheit (750 C) oven, bathe the
surface in carbon-enriched gas. The resulting multi-walled
carbon nanotubes—nanotubes layered inside one another like Russian
nesting dolls—can be grown on titanium, copper, and stainless
steel.
NASA hopes to replace
the black paint currently used in telescopes to minimize
contamination by stray light (up to 40% of incoming light is
unusable). Super-black materials ten times darker than the black
paint may improve observations of distant galaxies or exoplanets
orbiting stars in our own galaxy.
“You could get a
better observational efficiency,” Hagopian said last year. “You’re
not throwing away 40% of your data.”
What makes Vantablack
special? Like NASA’s material, Vantablack can be deposited on
three-dimensional surfaces, but it’s blacker than NASA’s
super-black. Also, Surrey NanoSystems says they make Vantablack at
low temperatures. Hot processes, like Hagopian’s, prevent layering
on base materials with low melting points. Vantablack can be
deposited on a wider selection of materials.
Further, for use in
sensitive optics, especially in space, the material needs to
dependably adhere to surfaces. Vantablack degrades very little and
can withstand the rigors of launch and other vibrations, thereby
reducing the risk of instrument contamination.
There’s no word on
cost of the material, however, Surrey NanoSystems is already moving
into commercial development. “We are now scaling up production to
meet the requirements of our first customers in the defense and space
sectors, and have already delivered our first orders,” said Jensen.
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