Vantablack: the (almost) black hole you can hold in your hands

In school we learned that black is the darkest color of all and it is defined as the “the total absence of light“, but in practice, not everything is “black and white” and the color doesn't reach that much, or at least it didn't. THE Surrey Nanosystems created a material so black, that it's like a black hole that you can hold in your hands.

Baptized Vantablack, it was conceived in 2014, and at the time it was already impressive, being able to absorb up to 99,96% of the light, letting it escape only. Now Surrey Nanosystems has perfected the material and made some videos showing Vantablack, which has become so dark that they have not been able to determine the exact percentage of light it absorbs, because the equipment that performs the measurement (spectrometer) simply does not work with he.

Watch in the video below how it practically swallows the light beam from a laser.

The material is composed of a matrix of carbon nanotubes, and when the photons reach its surface, they bounce off the nanotubes and lose energy until they are absorbed. In the second video the company displays 3 different shades of black. The first is a matte black paint, the middle one is the best black available to date, and most used in space applications and lastly Vantablack. The difference is absurd.

Initially, it was designed to aid in the calibration of sensitive scientific instruments, but its incredible properties can take it into a wider range of applications, such as in painéis solares high absorption, temperature controllers, military use for vehicle camouflage, etc.

Just don't expect to buy a "Vantablack" t-shirt to play "black hole" out there, because even though they don't reveal the price of the material, the creators say it's quite expensive.

Street: Geek