Super black
Super black is a surface treatment developed at the
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom. It absorbs approximately 99.6% of visible light at normal incidence, while conventional black paint
absorbs about 97.5%. At other angles of incidence, super black is even more effective: at an angle of 45°, it absorbs 99.9% of light.
Technology
The technology to create super black involves chemically etching a nickel-phosphorus alloy.[1][2]
Applications of super black are in specialist
optical instruments for reducing unwanted reflections. The disadvantage of this material is its low optical thickness, as it is a surface treatment. As a result, infrared light of a wavelength longer than a few micrometers penetrates through the dark layer and has much higher reflectivity. The reported spectral dependence increases from about 1% at 3 µm to 50% at 20 µm.[3]
In 2009, a competitor to the super black material, Vantablack, was developed based on carbon nanotubes. It has a relatively flat reflectance in a wide spectral range.[4]
In 2011, NASA and the US Army began funding research in the use of nanotube-based super black coatings in sensitive optics.[5] Nanotube-based superblack arrays and coatings have recently become commercially available.[6]
See also
References
- ^ "Mini craters key to 'blackest ever black'". Newscientist.com. 6 February 2003. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
- ^ "Highly Absorbing Surfaces for Radiometry". January 2003. Archived from the original on 2005-06-27.
- doi:10.1039/b204483h.
- ^ "NASA Develops Super-Black Material That Absorbs Light Across Multiple Wavelength Bands". Nasa.gov. 2011-11-08. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
- ^ Nanostructured Super-Black Optical Materials 10/23/2013 Archived March 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays and Forests on Substrates". Nano-lab.com. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
External links
- Beckhusen, Robert (December 24, 2012). "Army Goes Goth with "'Super-Black' Materials". Wired.
- Quick, Darren (Nov 9, 2011). "NASA's new super-black nanotube-based material is good news for star-gazers". New Atlas.
- "Super Black Coatings on a Mission". Paint Square. August 19, 2014.
Part of NASA's Materials Coating Experiment
- "Magic Black, Vacuum Black". Advanced coatings. Acktar.
Inorganic, thin coating, deposited using vacuum deposition technology