On 25/11/2017 11:01, RichA wrote:
On Saturday, 25 November 2017 04:00:53 UTC-5, Martin Brown wrote:
On 25/11/2017 06:59, RichA wrote:

Honestly, there is a new material like is announced every five years or so. Nothing much comes of it, but who knows?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/world/...ial/index.html

That is a very belated announcement of the same material as NPL made in
2006 but with the trendy new backronym the marketing men added in 2012.

The first media announcement of the stuff as vantablack was in 2014.

And nothing has come of it. No surprise.

There are practical difficulties. To get optimum performance it has to
be grown on the object being coated at 400C or so. I understand some
professional and satellite instruments may use it internally.

There is a slight catch too that its performance is near perfect for
normal incidence and less good at glancing angles. Even so it is way
better than any other form of black paint. It has made it in artistic
circles with Anish Kapoor having exclusive rights to use it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack

Dark chameleon dimers come very close now and are much easier to make
(and weight for weight can claim to be darker - at least according to
the Guiness Book of records).

https://www.newscientist.com/article...t-solar-power/


--
Regards,
Martin Brown