Twisted Sifter:
Vantablack® is a super-black coating that holds the world record as the darkest man-made substance. It is the darkest material ever measured by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, reflecting only 0.036% of the light that strikes it (measured at 700nm). It is currently available in two versions, either directly applied to surfaces using vacuum-deposition technology or by spraying and then post-processing.
Vantablack is not a black paint, pigment or fabric, but is instead a functionalized ‘forest’ of millions upon millions of incredibly small tubes made of carbon, or carbon nanotubes. Each nanotube in the ‘Vantablack forest’ has a diameter of around 20 nanometres (that’s about 3,500 times smaller than the diameter of the average human hair), and are typically from around 14 microns to 50 microns long. A surface area of 1 cm2 would contain around a billion nanotubes.
So how dark is it really?
This stuff is fascinatingly weird.
And in some circles on the interweb its referred to Super Dark Mater ;p
Is it also available in white?
A ski mask made of Vantablack would be cool!
You inspired me to look it up, and I found this:
https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-buy-VANTABLACK-clothing
“You can’t, but not because it’s not possible to make a fabric, or that it is too costly, but because the coating is an irritant to human skin, and if damaged and intentionally converted to an aerosol form, it would cause long term damage to your eyes/lungs should you inhale enough of it.”
Link has a video clip showing Vantablack fabric next to other black fabric.
That’s too bad. Still a cool idea though. I wonder if someone could still do it. Where there’s a will!
This. I don’t believe enough research has been done to determine the long-term health effects of such materials. I designed a public policy report on this subject a few years ago for the University of South Carolina that was never released.