Is This The Blackest Material Ever Produced By Human Hands?

How dark is the deepest shade of black?

The new material absorbs 99% of light, from any angle – making it 26% darker than carbon nanotubes, up till now the darkest material ever made. The darker the material, the more light it absorbs thus increasing the efficiency of solar panels.

Weirdly, the inspiration for the new material came from a… white cyphochilus beetle. Just in time for Halloween, scientists have created the blackest material to date. The sphere measures 30 nanometer (nm) in diameter. The resulting nanoparticles surface, then, creates a series of random pits and waveguides that suck the light in and then stop it from reflecting out. The material absorbs virtually all of the light that hits its surface.

People who have seen previously record-breaking dark materials say that doing so is “strange” and “alien” because it is so dark that the human eye can’t comprehend it, and instead just sees an unending abyss.

The blackest material ever created by human beings has been produced by a team of researchers at King Abdulla University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. The super-black can also be transformed into liquid form, wherein the material can absorb 26 percent more energy or light compared to carbon nanotubes.

The researchers hope to create a material which, ‘absorbs radiation and at all angles and polarisations’. The researchers said that the latest creation will help in solar panel technology, but also prove beneficial in fibre optic technology as it can be used in desalination projects.