Blacker than black: carbon nanotubes created a coating with a record low reflection coefficient

The British company Surrey NanoSystems has developed a technology for creating coatings based on carbon nanotubes with a reflectance of 0.035% in the visible range. The presentation of the new material, called Vantablack, will take place during an air show at Farnborough on July 19-20. So far, scientists have demonstrated a laboratory sample - a sheet of aluminum foil coated with a coating. It absorbs 99.96% of the incident light, which makes it look like a “black hole” without any reflections or shadows. In the photo, the coated area looks as if part of the frame was simply filled with 100% black in the graphics editor, but in reality it looks exactly the same.



The new coating will first of all be used in science - when creating more sensitive optical devices. Vantablack will allow you to more effectively blacken the internal surfaces and parts of telescopes and cameras, allowing them to distinguish the faintest light from distant and dim stars. The military also became interested in the material, and in the future, if production can be significantly reduced, similar coatings may appear in consumer photo and video equipment. Surrey NanoSystems does not call the exact price of Vantablack, but they admit that it is expensive to cover.

The property of carbon nanostructures to effectively absorb almost all the light was known for a long time, but there was no way to apply such a coating at low temperature. The company's specialists managed to develop a low-temperature process of creating a coating with good adhesion - it is able to withstand overloads and vibrations at the start of a space rocket.
')