比已知最黑的Vantablack還要黑的新物質(zhì)

You might think you already know black – even super-black Vantablack, previously the blackest material known to science – but researchers just came up with a material that takes black to a new level of blackness.

你可能認(rèn)為你已經(jīng)知道了黑色——甚至是超級黑色的Vantablack，以前是科學(xué)界所知的最黑的物質(zhì)——但是研究人員剛剛提出了一種材料，把黑色帶到一個新的層次。

The new, as-yet-unnamed ultra-black material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs), microscopic carbon strings that are a little like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, according to the team behind the project.

據(jù)項(xiàng)目背后的團(tuán)隊(duì)介紹，這種尚未命名的新型超黑色材料，是由垂直排列的碳納米管(CNT)制成的，這種微型碳鏈有點(diǎn)像一片模糊的小樹林。

And here's the rub – this CNT material can absorb more than 99.995 percent of incoming light, beating the 99.96 percent that Vantablack is able to absorb.

這種碳納米管材料能吸收99.995%以上的入射光，超過了Vantablack能吸收的99.96%。

"In other words, it reflected 10 times less light than all other superblack materials, including Vantablack," explains an MIT release.

麻省理工學(xué)院的一份報(bào)告解釋說：“換句話說，它反射的光比所有其他超黑材料，包括Vantablack，少10倍。”

Like some of the best scientific discoveries, this record-setting black stuff was discovered by accident.

就像一些最好的科學(xué)發(fā)現(xiàn)一樣，這種創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的黑色物質(zhì)是偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

The researchers were looking at ways to grow CNTs on electrically conductive materials like aluminium, and it was during these experiments that they noticed the blackness of the materials they were growing on specially treated aluminium foil.

研究人員正在尋找在導(dǎo)電材料(如鋁)上生長碳納米管的方法，正是在這些實(shí)驗(yàn)中，他們注意到了在經(jīng)過特殊處理的鋁箔上生長的材料的黑色。

"I remember noticing how black it was before growing carbon nanotubes on it, and then after growth, it looked even darker," says mechanical engineer Kehang Cui, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. "So I thought I should measure the optical reflectance of the sample."

來自中國上海交通大學(xué)的機(jī)械工程師崔克航(音譯)說:“我記得我注意到，在碳納米管生長之前，它是多么黑，然后在生長之后，它看起來甚至更黑。”“所以我想我應(yīng)該測量下樣品的光學(xué)反射率。”

That's when the ultra-powerful light absorption properties were recorded – from every possible angle, the material soaked up virtually all the light directed at it.

這就是記錄超強(qiáng)光吸收特性的時候——從每一個可能的角度來看，這種材料幾乎吸收了所有指向它的光。

What's not clear is why the material is like this. It might be the way that the etched aluminium, on which the oxide layer is removed, combines with the carbon nanotubes in some way, but more research is going to be needed to know for sure.

不清楚這種材料的形成因素是怎樣的，可能是去除氧化層的蝕刻鋁以某種方式與碳納米管結(jié)合的方式，一切還需要更多的研究才能確定。