Vantablack

Aluminium foil with a portion coated in Vantablack

Vantablack is a material developed by Surrey NanoSystems in the United Kingdom and is the darkest substance known, absorbing up to 99.965% of radiation in the visible spectrum.[1][2]

Etymology

The name is a compound of the acronym (VANTAs) vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays [3] and the colour black.

Properties

Vantablack grown on metal foil

Vantablack is composed of a forest of vertical tubes "grown" on a substrate using a modified chemical vapor deposition process (CVD). When light strikes Vantablack, instead of bouncing off from it, it becomes trapped and is continually deflected amongst the tubes, eventually becoming absorbed and dissipating into heat.[4]

Vantablack was an improvement over similar substances developed at the time. Vantablack absorbs 99.965% of visible light and can be created at 400 °C (752 °F). NASA had previously developed a similar substance that was grown at 750 °C (1,380 °F), so it required materials to be more heat resistant than Vantablack.[4]

The outgassing and particle fallout levels of Vantablack are low. The high levels in similar substances in the past had limited their commercial utility. Vantablack also has greater resistance to mechanical vibration, and has greater thermal stability.[5]

Development

Early development was carried out at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK,[6] the term "Vanta" was coined sometime later.[7] Vertically aligned nanotube arrays are sold by several firms, including NanoLab,[8] Santa Barbara Infrared[9] and others.[10]

The Vantablack name is trademarked by Surrey NanoSystems Limited,[11] and has been referenced in three patents registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.[12]

Applications

Being the blackest material, this substance has many potential applications, including preventing stray light from entering telescopes, and improving the performance of infrared cameras both on Earth and in space.[10] Ben Jensen, Chief Technology Officer, Surrey NanoSystems, has explained: "For example, it reduces stray light, improving the ability of sensitive telescopes to see the faintest stars... Its ultra-low reflectance improves the sensitivity of terrestrial, space and air-borne instrumentation."[10]

Vantablack may also increase the absorption of heat in materials used in concentrated solar power technology, as well as military applications such as thermal camouflage. Its emissivity and scalability support a wide range of applications.

In addition to directly growing aligned carbon nanotubes, Vantablack is made into two sprayable paints with randomly-oriented nanotubes, Vantablack S-VIS and Vantablack S-IR with better infrared absorption than the former. These paints require a special license, a temperature of 100–280 °C, and vacuum post-processing.[13] Surrey NanoSystems also markets a line of non-nanotube sprayable paints known as Vantablack VBx that are even easier to apply.[14]

Artistic use

Vantablack S-VIS, a sprayable paint that uses randomly-aligned carbon nanotubes and only has high absorption in the visible light band, has been exclusively licensed to Anish Kapoor's studio for artistic use.[15] This has caused outrage among some other artists, including Christian Furr and Stuart Semple.[16][17] In retaliation, Semple banned Kapoor from buying the strong shade of pink that Semple had developed.[18][19] He later stated that the move was itself like performance art and that he did not anticipate the amount of attention it received.[20] In December 2016, Kapoor posted an Instagram post of his middle finger dipped in Semple's pink.[21] Semple later barred Kapoor from buying other products of his, including one sold as Black 2.0, which has similar qualities to Vantablack VBx, despite being acrylic.[22][23]

Nanolab, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based carbon nanotube manufacturer, partnered with Boston artist Jason Chase to release a nanotube-based black paint called Singularity Black.[24] During the first showing of the colour, Chase, alluding to Vantablack, stated that "its possibilities have been stunted by not being available to experiment with," and Singularity Black's release was important to create access.[25]

Artreport.com contributor Jazia Hammoudi opined that the controversy had been manufactured by the media,[26] while the author of an article in Wired magazine suggested that the controversy between the artists and its online response was a spontaneous piece of collective performance art in itself.[20] The manufacturer claims that Vantablack is subject to export controls by the UK, and due to its physical requirements and thermal characteristics, the original Vantablack is not practical for use in many types of art.[27]

Vantablack VBx2, a variant of the non-nanotube Vantablack VBx that is optimized for large area spraying, was used in a "Vantablack pavilion" at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[28]

Commercial production

The first orders were delivered in July 2014.[10] In 2015, production was scaled up to satisfy the needs of buyers in the aerospace and defense sectors.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Vantablack: U.K. Firm Shows Off 'World's Darkest Material'". NBCNews.com. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Guinness World Records: Darkest manmade substance, 19 October 2015
  3. ↑ Jackson, Jeremy J.; Puretzky, Alex A.; More, Karren L.; Rouleau, Christopher M.; Eres, Gyula; Geohegan, David B. (3 Dec 2010). "Pulsed Growth of Vertically Aligned Nanotube Arrays with Variable Density". Nano. American Chemical Society (ACS): 7573&ndash, 7581. doi:10.1021/nn102029y. Retrieved 9 Oct 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Vantablack, the world's darkest material, is unveiled by UK". South China Morning Post - World. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Kuittinen, Tero (14 July 2014). "Scientists have developed a black so deep it makes 3D objects look flat". Yahoo! News Canada. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  6. ↑ Theocharous, E.; Deshpande, R.; Dillon, A. C.; Lehman, J. "Evaluation of a pyroelectric detector with a carbon multiwalled nanotube black coating in the infrared". Applied Optics. 45 (6): 1093. Bibcode:2006ApOpt..45.1093T. doi:10.1364/AO.45.001093.
  7. ↑ Theocharous, S.P.; Theocharous, E.; Lehman, J.H. "The evaluation of the performance of two pyroelectric detectors with vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube coatings". Infrared Physics & Technology. 55 (4): 299–305. Bibcode:2012InPhT..55..299T. doi:10.1016/j.infrared.2012.03.006.
  8. ↑ "NanoLab multiwalled carbon nanotubes, aligned carbon nanotube arrays, nanoparticles, nanotube paper,dispersant, nanowires". www.nano-lab.com. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  9. ↑ "VANTABlack-S". SBIR. Santa Barbara Infrared Inc. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Howard, Jacqueline (14 July 2014). "This May Be The World's Darkest Material Yet". Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "VANTABLACK Trademark of Surrey NanoSystems Limited - Registration Number 4783953 - Serial Number 79156544 :: Justia Trademarks". trademarks.justia.com. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  12. ↑ "Results of Search in US Patent Collection db for: Vantablack: 3 patents.". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Vantablack S-IR". Surrey NanoSystems.
  14. ↑ "Vantablack VBx Coatings". Surrey NanoSystems.
  15. ↑ "Art Fight! The Pinkest Pink Versus the Blackest Black". wired.com. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  16. ↑ Frank, Priscilla (29 February 2016). "Anish Kapoor Angers Artists By Seizing Exclusive Rights To 'Blackest Black' Pigment" – via Huff Post.
  17. ↑ "Some Artists Are Seeing Red Over A New 'Black'". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  18. ↑ Roisin O'Connor: Anish Kapoor gets his hands on 'pinkest pink' after being banned from use by its creator, independent.co.uk, 27 December 2016
  19. ↑ "*THE WORLD'S PINKEST PINK - 50g powdered paint by Stuart Semple". Culture Hustle. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  20. 1 2 "Art Fight! The Pinkest Pink Versus the Blackest Black". WIRED. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  21. ↑ "Instagram post by Anish Kapoor • Dec 23, 2016 at 10:32am UTC". Instagram. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  22. ↑ "Stuart Semple creates cherry-scented version of Anish Kapoor's Vantablack". Dezeen. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  23. ↑ "Anish Kapoor banned from using colour-changing paint in ongoing rights war". Dezeen. 2017-07-07. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  24. ↑ "Meet Singularity Black, the Blackest Paint on the Market". Hyperallergic. 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  25. ↑ "Nanolab releases own extremely black paint to rival Anish Kapoor's Vantablack". Dezeen. 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  26. ↑ "Anish Kapoor, Vantablack And Manufactured Moral Outrage - Art Report". Art Report. 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  27. ↑ "FAQs". Surrey NanoSystems. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  28. ↑ "Asif Khan reveals super-dark Vantablack pavilion for Winter Olympics 2018". Dezeen. 7 February 2018.
  • Anthony, Sebastian (July 14, 2014). "It's like staring 'into a black hole': World's darkest material will be used to make very stealthy aircraft, better telescopes". Extreme Tech. Even when you bend or crumple the Vantablack, the material — or rather, the dark nothingness created by the material — [still] looks completely flat
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