'Darkest ever' material created

By Helen Briggs
BBC News science reporter

Published Jan 16, BBCNews

The "darkest ever" substance known to science has been made in a US laboratory.

The material was created from carbon nanotubes - sheets of carbon just one atom thick rolled up into cylinders.

Researchers say it is the closest thing yet to the ideal black material, which absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths.

The discovery is expected to have applications in the fields of electronics and solar energy.

Theoretical clues

An ideal black object absorbs all the colours of light and reflects none of them. In theory, it should be possible to make something that approaches the "perfect absorber".

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image: Carbon nanotubes are a basic building block of nanotechnology (Image courtesy of Institute of Nanotechnology)