In July 2014, scientists at the National Physical Laboratory of Great Britain and Surrey NanoSystems presented darkest material in the world - Vantablack. It absorbs 99.965% of incident radiation - visible light, microwaves and radio waves.
Material Vantablack created out of the stands vertical tubes, which "grow" on the aluminum foil, each of the tubes 10 000 times thinner than a human hair. These tubes were grown in vitro on special sheets of aluminum foil. Nanotubes are so thin that the photons falling on vantablack, lost between the nanotubes and virtually not reflected back, turning into heat.
When one looks at this stuff, it is very difficult to describe my feelings. He does not understand what his eyes can see. Form, texture and contours are absent, leaving only a black abyss.
Vantablack can become widespread, it can be used to prevent diffusion of light in telescopes, infrared cameras improvement in thermal protection systems, and as a coating of tiny elements of various components and MEMS devices. The military also drew attention to this development, however, scientists from the company Surrey Nanosystems, created the Vantablek forbidden to talk to journalists on the subject.
The price of the material is also not clear, scientists were limited to the phrase "it is very expensive" Besides the unique optical properties of the new material Vantablack conducts heat seven times better than copper and has a ten times better tensile strength than steel.