MIT engineers create the ‘blackest of black’ material … by accident

It’s a black so dark, some may say it’s blacker than their ex’s heart.

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled the “blackest black” – which is “10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported”.

“The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs – microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminium foil. The foil captures at least 99.995 per cent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record,” a statement from MIT said.

A yellow diamond coated in the material appeared to completely disappear – making it look like a dark “void”.

When engineers created the material, however, it was completely by accident.

Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and MIT postdoc Kehang Cui, now a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, were “experimenting with ways to grow carbon nanotubes on electrically conducting materials such as aluminium, to boost their electrical and thermal properties” when they were confronted with a problem.