A British company has developed a new material that is so black that is absorbs all but .035% of light. To stare at the coating made of carbon nanotubes-each 10,000 times thinner than a human hair-is an odd experience. It is so dark that the human eye can't sense what it's seeing. Any shape or contour is lost, making it an apparent abyss. If it was to be made into something of a little black dress, the wearer's head and limbs would seem to float above a dress-shaped hole. The nanotube material, called "Vantablack" has been grown in sheets of aluminum foil. While the foil may be crumpled to represent hills and valleys, the landscape will disappear under the material.
"You expect to see the hills, but it's all black, like a hole. There's nothing there. It's quite odd." Said a chief techincal officer.
When asked about the prospect of making a little black dress, he said it would be extremely expensive-the cost of he material he was unable to reveal.
Vantablack works by packing together nanotubes, like a field of incredibly thin drinking straws. These are so tiny that light cannot pass through them, although it can pass through gaps between them. Once there, a small bit of light bounces around before it's absorbed.
Professor of color science and technology at Leeds University, Stephen Westland says that traditional black was a color of light and scientists are now pushing it something out of this world.
He also said, "Many people think black is the absence of light. I completely disagree with this. Unless you are looking at a black hole, no one has never actually seen something that has no light. These new materials are pretty much as black as we can get, almost as close to a black hole as you can imagine."
