New material pushes the boundary of blackness [View All]

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http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1555030620080115

New material pushes the boundary of blackness

Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:38pm EST

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers said on Tuesday they have made the darkest material on Earth, a substance so black it absorbs more than 99.9 percent of light.

Made from tiny tubes of carbon standing on end, this material is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.

And the material is close to the long-sought ideal black, which could absorb all colors of light and reflect none.

...

Ajayan said the material could be used in solar energy conversion. "You could think of a material that basically collects all the light that falls into it," he said.

...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/5451632.html