Vanta Black: 11.5 stops of absorption

[polyglot]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I'll bet it's pricey.

 

[AgX]

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]

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.