MIT Unveils New 'Blackest Black' Material and Makes a Diamond Disappear

An anonymous reader shares a report: What do you do with a $2 million natural yellow diamond? If you're at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you coat it in a wild high-tech material that makes any object look like it fell into a black hole. The coated diamond is now a piece of art called The Redemption of Vanity, a collaboration between Diemut Strebe, artist-in-residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology, and Brian Wardle an MIT aeronautics and astronautics professor. The diamond will be on exhibit at the New York Stock Exchange until Nov. 25, giving viewers a chance to see MIT's new carbon nanotube material in action. "The unification of extreme opposites in one object and the particular aesthetic features of the CNTs caught my imagination for this art project," Strebe said in an MIT release. MIT described the carbon nanotubes as "microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees" that's grown on an aluminum foil surface. "The foil captures more than 99.96 percent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record," MIT said.

Important facts

[Presence Eternal]

Everything that you wear that you think is black is just very dark green or very dark red, because black dye does not exist. The only true black in the world is the heart of a dragon.

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[fahrbot-bot]

Everything that you wear that you think is black is just very dark green or very dark red, because black dye does not exist.

Well, according to Sterling Archer [wikipedia.org], there's Dark Black and Slightly Darker Black [youtube.com] -- at least with Turtleneck -- I mean, Tactleneck [youtube.com] -- sweaters.

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[DontBeAMoran]

Careful, arguing about black dyes on the internet is a zone of danger.

It's all fun and games ...

[BAReFO0t]

... until someone dyes.

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[Kinthelt]

I've never seen Burt Reynolds wear a turtleneck. Just saying.

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[Larry Lightbulb]

Not as black as priests socks.

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[Methadras]

I could still see the profile of the diamond. Also if you change the gamma on your monitor it can show up better.

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[thomn8r]

The only true black in the world is the heart of a dragon.

Or that of my ex

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[DrStoooopid]

You've met my ex too?

I wonder how warm these extremely black materials

[KixWooder]

Since they are absorbing almost all the light, they must radiate a decent amount of heat.

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[fahrbot-bot]

Since they are absorbing almost all the light, they must radiate a decent amount of heat.

I guess Hotblack Desiato [fandom.com] will like this because it's hot and black -- especially useful for Disaster Area's [fandom.com] stunt ship, as it dives into the Sun. Black on black -- markings, labels, decorations, etc... -- is the new black.

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[alvinrod]

It's probably not that much hotter than anything that's just a regular shade of black. Although the non special black might only be absorbing 90% or 95% of visible light as opposed to the 99.9%+ of these kind of substances, there's diminishing returns compared to something that's reflecting most of the visible wavelengths of light. Also, I don't know if these substances are designed to absorb wavelengths of light outside of the visible spectrum, so it's possible that something could be made that's soaking u

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[DontBeAMoran]

That thing is so damn black, I think if you look at it in the IR spectrum you'll see it in 4D.

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[RockDoctor]

You can work it out.

An object that absorbs 99.9% of the light that falls on it absorbs about 11% more light than an object that absorbs 90% of the light that falls on it. So it's total heat flux (the radiant emittance) will be about 111% that of a 90% absorber. Radiant emittance varies as the fourth power of the absolute temperature. If you're talking about a reference (90% grey) body which is at NTP (20 degC, 293.15 K), then the 99.9% grey object would be at (NTP temperature)*(1.11)^(1/4) Kelvin. That's a

Smooth marketing

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

From the first link: "BMW painted an SUV in Vantablack as a smooth marketing move."

It's smooth, as long as the Marketing person who thought of that stunt is the first person to drive it on public roads at night.

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[freeze128]

Hope it doesn't rain.

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[greylion3]

Good point. If it wasn't for the front grill and license plates, it would just look like a couple of head lights and tail lights going by.
If electric, it would be very silent too.

Even just parked at night on the street, it would actually be quite the hazard.

Hah! Suck, Kapoor

[SpammersAreScum]

https://www.theguardian.com/ar... [theguardian.com]

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[sheramil]

Thanks. Came to this thread to post something about that rat-faced Kapoorian.

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[Larry Lightbulb]

Hopefully MIT put in the small print that he's the only person not allowed to use it.

This is why

[Ryzilynt]

This is why we haven't encountered any other intelligent life in the universe.

Every civilization gets to this point. When they create black hole nano tube materials and paint it on a yellow diamond.

Then BOOM gone forever, they don't listen.

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[alvinrod]

I suppose you could build a giant Dyson sphere and coat the outside with a material that absorbs all wavelengths and you'd essentially make yourself invisible to that kind of detection. Should probably keep the unwanted solicitors out.

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[quenda]

I suppose you could build a giant Dyson sphere and coat the outside with a material that absorbs all wavelengths and you'd essentially make yourself invisible

Ever heard of Black-body radiation [wikipedia.org]?

Captures 99.96%

[110010001000]

It seems doubtful it captures 99.96% of incoming light. If that happened it would be pretty dark outside.

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[110010001000]

But eventually it will capture all the light and it will be like the dark side of the moon. In fact it will be all dark.

Wait, an invisible $2M diamond...

[h33t l4x0r]

On exhibit at the NYSE? Sounds like the plot of a George Clooney heist movie.

David Copperfield's kind of invisibility

[Deep Esophagus]

Am I missing some amazing unprecedented feat here? They painted the diamond black, then photographed it against a black background. I guess the bar for "invisibility" is pretty low these days.

How do we know?

[tomhath]

They say it's a diamond; but it's invisible, so nobody can say for sure. It might be a booger for all we know.

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[110010001000]

You can trust them. They are MIT.

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[Cmdln Daco]

Marvin Minksy affirms that fact.

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[DontBeAMoran]

Men in Teal?

Black cars not so bright selection

[spinitch]

Unless live in North, a black car not the brightest selection;) Heating a car easier than cooling it for non sub zero locations. Now if they could convert the excess heat to energy cost effectively that would cool;)

Yes, but what's most important is...

[magusxxx]

...does it make me look thin?

Would make for a good plot device on White Collar

[Babel-17]

If the show were still on the air.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[LenKagetsu]

Here's a tip; diamonds are nowhere near the price the pedophile executives at DeBeers claim they are. They're common, worthless, and trivial to synthesize since it's just heavily compressed carbon.

Also, nowadays, artificial = higher quality.

[BAReFO0t]

Nowadays, the only way to tell a natural diamond from an artificial one, is that the natura one has flaws. Which makes the whole thing a *complete* farce.

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[Larry Lightbulb]

More like the Culture

On exhibit at the New York Stock Exchange?

[fredrated]

Excellent, let's hope the bankers realize their wealth will disappear equally when we extract the politicians from their pockets.

Asbestos is pretty too

[TheNarrator]

Study Says Carbon Nanotubes as Dangerous as Asbestos
https://www.scientificamerican... [scientificamerican.com]

Well, duh.

[BAReFO0t]

Asbestos is just "bigger nanotubes". Long thin razor-sharp sticks of crystal, that get stuck in your lungs, and become a lung blender whenever you move.

Carbon nanotubes are the same, except much smaller. So you get a meat slurry instead of minced meat. ;)

Yeah, this shit will ultimately get banned, unless covered in some clear resin, front, sides, and back.

It's, like, how much more black can it be

[rsilvergun]

and the answer is marginally. Marginally more black. [youtube.com]

Red door

[egilhh]

Yellow diamond? Clearly, they should have gone for a red door instead...

Can somebody explain the diamond demo?

[OneHundredAndTen]

So, they cover it with the material, and they put it on a background of the same material. As demos go, this is a rather unspectacular one. Or am I misunderstanding something?

No Spinal Tap references yet?

[Chris Mattern]

Son, I am disappoint.

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[samwichse]

https://science.slashdot.org/c... [slashdot.org]

Correction for percentage

[norby_7f]

The source of the source (http://news.mit.edu/2019/blackest-black-material-cnt-0913) states that the material absorbs "at least 99.995 percent of incoming light". (99.96% is the percentage for Vantablack)