MIT engineers develop “blackest black” material to date

MIT News  September 12, 2019
The material reported by researchers at MIT is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995 percent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record. They suspect that it may have something to do with the combination of etched aluminum, which is somewhat blackened, with the carbon nanotubes. In an exhibit called Redemption of Vanity they demonstrated the material by making a brilliantly faceted 16.78 carat diamond appear as a flat, black void by coating it with the new material. The material is gaining interest in the aerospace community, and astrophysics for the possibility of using the material as the basis for a star shade to shield a space telescope from stray light…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE

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