Vantablack is the name of a material comprised of carbon nano-tubes and is the blackest substance currently known.
The substance's design gives it the ability to absorb 99.965% of light. It is best described as a forest of vertical tubes of carbon and when light interacts with them instead of bouncing off, it becomes trapped in the forest of tubes and is eventually absorbed and converted into heat.
Vantablack was designed as a successor to the previous substance available at the time. The previous substance was developed by NASA and could only be grown 750 °C (1,380 °F) but Vantablack can be created at 400 °C (752 °F). this means that Vantablack can be grown on materials that cannot withstand higher temperatures.
The out gassing (release of a gas that was dissolved, trapped, frozen or absorbed) of Vantablack are low. This allows for the substance to be of actual commercial use, were in previous versions couldn't. It also has a greater resistance when dealing with mechanical vibration, and improved thermal stability.
Developed at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, the term Vanta was not created until later.
The name means "Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays", and the substance is now being developed by Surrey NanoSystems in Newhaven England.
Here is a picture of Vantablack compared to dark black paint.
Here is a video that shows Vantablack in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObM7BTe_Jrw
(n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Vantablack - Wikipedia. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack
S. (n.d.). Youtube. Vantablack: The Darkest Material Ever Made - YouTube. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP0rH8IR22c
