The “World’s Blackest Black” Absorbs So Much Light It Makes 3D Objects Look Flat

Back in 2014, a U.K. nanotech company called Surrey NanoSystems created what is known today as Vantablack, or the “world’s blackest black”.

According to Wikipedia, “Vantablack is composed of a forest of vertical tubes which are “grown” on a substrate using a modified chemical vapor deposition process. When light hits Vantablack, instead of bouncing off, it becomes trapped and is continually deflected among the tubes, eventually becoming absorbed and dissipating into heat.”

Vantablack is so incredibly non-reflective, that it absorbs 99.96 percent of the light that hits it.

However, just recently the company announced Vantablack 2.0, which promises to be even blacker than the “blackest black.” What’s even more incredible, during testing, Surrey NanoSystems’ spectrometers couldn’t even detect it.

And when added to any object the results are pretty insane.

Vantablack

The request made by British artist Anish Kapoor for the exclusive use of Vantablack in exchange for aiding the development of new applications for the product sparked a media frenzy around the product. This created a rift in the art community, as several artists argued that Vantablack should be available for unrestricted use.

Vantablack on a basketball

You can keep up-to-date with Vantablack over at Surrey NanoSystems. Be sure to give this a share on Facebook before you go, and let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Photos via Surrey NanoSystems