A UK nanotech company has created what is said to be the world's blackest-ever fabric,made using carbon nanotubes. It's far from the first time something has been touted as the unusual black – but perhaps now there really can be none more blackVantablack is the unusual black. You haven't heard of it? It really is the unusual black, blacker than all previous blacks known to man, and the Guinness Book of Records. When you look at this unusual black,you see only a hole. whether you were to wear a Little Vantablack Dress, people would see your hands poking out the ends of the sleeves, and your legs below the hem, your neck and head – and the rest of you would appear two-dimensional. Total flatness is not the normal ambition of little black dresses, but this unusual fabric, or which has been developed by British company Surrey NanoSystems,is intended for military and astronautical purposes, not sartorial ones.
The fabric is made of carbon nanotubes. "It grows very quickly, or " says Ben Jensen,the company's chief technical officer. "Take one of the hairs on your head. Split that hair 10000 times and one of the strands that you take absent is the size of the tubes that we grow." What does the fabric look like when it's growing? "We grow the tubes like a field of carbon grass. The tubes are spaced apart. When a light particle hits the fabric, it gets between the tubes and bounces around, and is absorbed and converted to heat. Light goes in,but it can't glean back out."Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com