Vantablack

Composition and Properties of Vantablack

Vantablack is a pigment coating developed in 2014 by the British company Surrey Nanosystems. The name is an acronym for Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Array Black. Materials coated with this pigment absorb 99,965% of the incident light which made it the blackest known pigment at the time of its discovery. The chemical stability and lightfastness of this pigment are exceedingly high. The coated material has to be protected from touching and other possibilities of abrasion.

The material is coated by an array of nanotubes made of pure carbon which are vertically aligned and more or less regularly spaced on the surface. The pattern of the nanotubes is not unlike an array of trees in a forest. The light falling on the coated material enters the space between the nanotubes and is then repeatedly reflected off the nanotubes until it is absorbed.

The scientists at MIT have since produced another material not yet named absorbing 99,995% of incident light and which is 10 times blacker than Vantablack

Word Origin

Preparation 

The vantablack coatings can only be applied in a special reactor at high temperatures. The recently developed alternative called S-VIS can be sprayed onto surfaces using a special apparatus.

Application of S-VIS.
Image by Surrey Nanosystems

History of Use 

Vantablack is commercially available as a service from Surrey NanoSystems since 2014. In 2016 the artist Anish Kapoor made a deal with Surrey NanoSystems and obtained exclusive rights for the use of this pigment. One of the first applications by Anish Kapoor was the coating of his large sculpture Cloud Gate (2006) in Chicago.

Examples of use

Identification

Further Reading