Vanta Black: 11.5 stops of absorption

polyglot · Jul 14, 2014

Linky.

0.035% reflectivity is about 11.5 stops (3.4D) of attenuation. Being able to make prints with this stuff would give awesome dynamic range, perhaps even better than chromes. Prints would need to be extremely well-lit!

jp498 · Jul 14, 2014

That's like 10x less reflectivity than black flocking! If you didn't print onto it, it would make a good backing for wet plate positive look.

Dr Croubie · Jul 14, 2014

So it's made of nanotubes, I presume perpendicular to the surface?
Might those nanotubes have a large enough diameter to fit in some sort of dye? Could that make a very very finely-pixellated digital-analogue print?

NedL · Jul 15, 2014

It would be good for lining the insides of homemade cameras....

Old-N-Feeble · Jul 15, 2014

I'll bet it's pricey.

AgX · Jul 15, 2014

It would work not with classic print material coatings as these need white base.

Within the photochemical indusrty that dynamic range issue had sucessfully been tackled by Gevaert.

polyglot · Jul 15, 2014

AgX said:
It would work not with classic print material coatings as these need white base.

Within the photochemical indusrty that dynamic range issue had sucessfully been tackled by Gevaert.

Yeah, we don't have a means of image-forming with it yet, unless there is some means of selectively growing it. Its default backing is Al foil, so that's a pretty good "white".

This is by far the lowest albedo substance we've manufactured. It's not a previously solved problem - note that high density transmissive media don't count.

Vanta Black: 11.5 stops of absorption

polyglot

jp498

Dr Croubie

NedL

Old-N-Feeble

AgX

polyglot

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency