The new black
Everyone’s talking about...
Describing the latest fashion as ‘the new black’ is a cliche. But now there really is a ‘new black’ – scientists have created the world’s darkest material. What do we know about it?
British firm Surrey NanoSystems led the way with Vantablack, a coating ‘darker than a black hole’. A spray creates a microscopic forest of nanotubes – ‘straws’ of carbon 1/10,000th the width of a human hair – that absorbs 99.965 per cent of light which hits it. (‘Vanta’ comes from the acronym for ‘Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays’). Instead of being reflected, light bounces around the tubes, dissipating as heat. Put Vantablack on crumpled tinfoil and it looks like a ‘black, flat, featureless void’, says inventor Ben Jensen. A US team has gone even further, creating a material that absorbs 99.995 per cent of light.
What’s it used for?
In astronomy, preventing stray light from entering telescopes, and by the military. But it would be useless for stealth aircraft as the heat released would be easy for enemies to spot. Nor can individuals buy it, despite hundreds of requests. ‘Some are insane,’ Jensen once said. ‘Rock stars asking for super-black guitars.’
But could you paint with it?
Only if you are Turner Prize winner Sir Anish Kapoor, who is the only artist able to use it, thanks to a controversial deal. He unveiled a series of sculptures in Venice last week coated in Vantablack, also known as ‘Kapoor Black’. Rival Stuart Semple has compared him to an unpopular child ‘who wouldn’t share their colouring pencils’ – and retaliated by creating the ‘world’s pinkest pink’ available to everyone… except Kapoor (who managed to get his hands on it anyway).
Any other uses?
BMW once painted an X6 car, above, in Vantablack, but it’s unlikely to go into production. Jensen says the interior would be incredibly hot ‘and people don’t generally want to cook themselves’.
And the last word..?
Goes to Kapoor, who once said: ‘Perhaps the darkest black is the black we carry within ourselves.’ Lighten up, Anish!