None more black: UK engineers create world's darkest material

Vantablack, a so-called ‘super black’ coating from Surrey Nanosystems, combines exceptionally low mass, thermal stability and an ability to absorb 99.96 per cent of incident radiation. Consequently, the coating is suited to applications including apertures, baffles, cold shields and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)–type optical sensors.

The material also overcomes limitations encountered in the manufacture of super-black carbon nanotube-based materials, where high temperatures precluded direct application to sensitive electronics or materials with relatively low melting points. This, along with poor adhesion, prevented their application to space and airborne instrumentation.

The material, a vertically aligned nanotube array, is borne out of applying the company’s patented low-temperature carbon nanotube growth process to develop a material for space-based black body calibration sources for Earth observation.

Ben Jensen, CTO Surrey NanoSystems told The Engineer: ‘It meant essentially transferring our technology that we’d developed for growth on silicon at low temperatures to aluminium flight qualified type materials, such as 6061 type substrates.