the search for the "blackest black

wonyoung jang

is a second-year student double-majoring in English Language & Literature and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Although most of his academic interests––which are admittedly amorphous––lie in modernist literature, pedagogy, and feminist and queer theory, he is casually interested (read: is too lazy to pursue them in earnest) in many disparate topics, from music theory to quantum physics. Outside of class, Wonyoung can be found singing with his a cappella group The Ransom Notes, teaching in Chicago schools, and participating in quizbowl. He also enjoys cooking, listening to country music, and running along the lake as the sun rises.

In December 2016, sculptor Anish Kapoor—of Cloud Gate, or Chicago’s “Bean,” fame—scandalized the art world by posting an Instagram picture of his middle finger dipped in pink paint. He was furious because he had been banned from using this particular shade of pink by another contemporary artist, Stuart Semple, as retaliation against Kapoor for buying exclusive rights to use a special black paint. To some people, this seemed like much ado about nothing. Why so publicly and dramatically feud over black paint? This paint, though, was not just any black paint—it was Vantablack, which was, at the time, the darkest substance created by humanity. 15

To understand why Vantablack was so valuable and had such a high profile, we must first understand what made this “blackest black” so desirable by examining the work of physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. In an 1860 paper, Kirchhoff formulated his law of thermal radiation,

which stated that, for any surface at a given temperature and wavelength, a surface’s ability to release energy as thermal radiation—or its emissivity— and a surface’s ability to take in energy as thermal radiation—or its absorptivity—must be equal. 4 This law was particularly valuable in reconciling a peculiarity found in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy cannot decrease. Kirchhoff had posed a paradox that seems to violate the Second Law: given a cold system with high emissivity and a hot system with low emissivity, the system with higher emissivity would need to transfer its energy to the system with lower emissivity, but heat—and entropy—cannot, according to the Second Law, spontaneously flow from a colder system to a hotter system. Kirchhoff then proposed a solution in which the two bodies would both emit and absorb energy between each other: the hot system would be emitting heat to the cold system per the Second Law, and the cold system would be absorbing this heat, but the hot s y s t e m would also be absorbing the same amount of heat it is e m i t t i n g to the cold system, allowing for thermodynamic equilibrium to be maintained. 12 This solution is predicated on a theoretical concept Kirchhoff introduces in his paper—the concept of “bodies” that “completely absorb all incident rays,” which are vital because the systems Kirchhoff describes must emit and absorb energy in a specific way in order to reach thermodynamic equilibrium. These ideal bodies were termed blackbodies. 12 Through Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation, we can thus conclude that blackbodies in thermal equilibrium, in perfectly absorbing energy, must also perfectly emit energy. Hence, the concept of blackbody radiation. 13 Drawing from Kirchhoff’s work, scientists have long entertained the many practical applications of blackbodies. Their ability to perfectly absorb energy would allow them to be used in solar energy collectors and infrared thermal detectors, and their ability to perfectly Blackbody radiation spectra. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

[S]cientists have long entertained the many practical applications of blackbodies.

emit energy would broaden horizons for sustainable infrared heating mechanisms and heat liberation. 14 Although perfect blackbodies as idealized by Kirchhoff do not exist—at least, not in a capacity that has been realized and harnessed by humanity—scientists have, due to the captivating prospect of expanding horizons in technological design, doggedly pursued efforts to closely approximate blackbodies in hopes of reaping even just some of the potential spoils.

To this end, in 2003, scientists at the U.K’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) made a major breakthrough in the search for the “blackest black” by chemically etching a nickel-phosphorus alloy to create what they termed “super-black,” a coating that absorbs about 99.6% of visible light at normal incidence. 11 While ultra-black substances had been used before in attempts to approximate the properties of a blackbody in scientific design, the discovery of super-black was not only one of the first significant and successful innovations in the public eye, but it was also, at the time, appreciably closer to the properties of a blackbody than its predecessors; super-black was thus intended for use in “low reflectance coatings in optical instruments and sensors” in order to “improve the absorbance of thermal detectors.” 3 Concurrently with the increased scientific interest in super-black and developing similar pseudo-blackbody emulators, there was also considerable interest in taking super-black and using it in artistic design—NPL had confirmed in an interview, for example, that many artists had expressed enthusiasm for utilizing the material in their works. 9 In a way, the creation of super-black was the genesis of concerted modern efforts to work towards harnessing blackbody technology and allowed for the widespread societal propagation of this alluring idea of the “blackest black.”

Shortly after super-black burst onto the scene, other researchers began to pursue similar projects in earnest, and, in 2006, NPL carried out early development of a black coating made of carbon nanotubes. 17 This technology would then be expanded upon by

[T]he creation of super-black was the genesis of concerted modern efforts to work towards harnessing blackbody technology and allowed for the widespread societal propagation of this alluring idea of the “blackest black.”

Surrey NanoSystems in 2014 to yield Vantablack, which boasted a much higher ability to absorb energy than super-black, absorbing a whopping 99.96% of visible light. 16 The mechanism by which Vantablack superseded

super-black lies in the carbon nanotubes that comprise it—microscopic tubes of carbon are grown on a surface, and when photons, the quanta of light, travel towards the surface, they travel down the carbon nanotubes and are effectively trapped inside. 8 In contrast to super-black, which merely etched an alloy in order to assist in the absorption of photons, Vantablack and its nanotubes manage the process of trapping light on a wider scale, allowing it to be used more prolifically in design applications.

Predictably, Vantablack took the world by storm. Scientists raved about its unparalleled ability to meticulously calibrate cameras, thermal imaging devices, and telescopes, 10 and the defense sector even conducted research into using Vantablack to aid in the production of stealth aircraft; 2 the possibilities for scientific design seemed endless. However, the aspect of Vantablack that perhaps captivated the public more was its potential for artistic design, and, once Surrey NanoSystems developed a spray

[M]icroscopic tubes of carbon are grown on a surface, and when photons, the quanta of light, travel towards the surface, they travel down the carbon nanotubes and are effectively trapped inside.

on Vantablack paint in 2016, artists were scrambling to use this enigmatic and exotic color in their work, and customers were asking for their cars and gambling die to be covered in the new “blackest black." 6 Even as recently as 2019, BMW unveiled a Vantablack-colored car. 5 Of the artists who lined up first at Surrey NanoSystems’ door to gain the opportunity to use Vantablack in art, the only one who succeeded was Anish Kapoor.

Kapoor and Surrey NanoSystems, after much discussion, eventually reached a deal that allowed Kapoor to buy exclusive rights to use Surrey NanoSystems’ spray-on Vantablack paint in his art. This exchange provoked an intense fury in the contemporary art community, particularly with Stuart Semple, who had begrudgingly once remarked that Vantablack is his favorite color, in spite of his inability to use it. To cheekily counter Kapoor’s deal, Semple created his “pinkest

pink” to rival the “blackest black” and banned Kapoor from buying it, which lead to Kapoor’s infamous and vulgar Instagram post. As this feud transpired, Vantablack transcended super-black in another way: Vantablack was no longer just another advancement in scientific design and blackbody technology––it was now also a widespread cultural phenomenon. The search for the “blackest black” had left the realm of scientific esotericism and crystallized into a fascinating concept that burrowed its way into artistic design and public intrigue in a way that similar technologies had not done before. This shift was particularly noticeable when, in 2017, Surrey NanoSystems debuted an improved Vantablack with demonstration videos—which would later go viral—that showed entire sculptures appearing to flatten after the application of Vantablack. 1 The draw of Vantablack no longer lay in the hands of scientists—it lay in the hands of ordinary people.

The search for the “blackest black” has since continued and superseded Vantablack, but the perception of this endeavor has shifted due to Vantablack’s pervasive cultural presence. Before the Vantablack art controversy, the purpose of developing new darker substances was primarily for applications in scientific design—the artistic applications of super-black were only vaguely entertained, and even Vantablack had been created for technological purposes. Now, each advancement is touted for its use in blackbody technology as well as its use in non-technological settings, showing how scientific design in many ways

The search for the “blackest black” had left the realm of scientific esotericism and crystallized into a fascinating concept that burrowed its way into artistic design and public intrigue.

has grown to dovetail with artistic design. Recently, in September 2019, a yet-unnamed material was unveiled at a New York Stock Exchange art exhibit by MIT scientists; this new material has far surpassed Vantablack’s capabilities, absorbing approximately 99.995% of visible light. At this exhibit, the material was revealed as part of an exhibit created in part by MIT artist-in-residence Diemut Strebe in which it was used to coat a diamond. 7 While the scientists did elucidate the broadened scientific applications of this particular material, the focus of the ceremony and publicity was on the diamond art exhibit, not the science—perhaps indicative of a recent subversion of cultural zeitgeist regarding these sorts of scientific endeavors.

And so the search for a real blackbody continues, but now on an almost fundamentally different course than the one it had set out on—a course that allows for artistic design to intermingle with scientific design; a course that allows for greater accessibility to the public eye and intrigue; a course that, perhaps, will broaden the horizons for innovation in not just blackbody technology, but in other areas of life concurrently.

1 Ainley, N. (2017). The “World’s Blackest Black” Creators Came Out with an Even Blacker Black. Vice.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nzg9xw/worlds-blackest-black-vantablack-2

2 Anthony, S. (2014). It’s like staring ‘into a black hole’: World’s darkest material will be used to make very

stealthy aircraft, better telescopes. Extremetech. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186229-its-likestaring-into-a-black-hole-worlds-darkest-material-will-be-used-to-make-very-stealthy-aircraft-better-telescopes

3 Brown, R. (2002). The physical and chemical properties of electroless nickel–phosphorus alloys and low

reflectance nickel–phosphorus black surfaces. Journal of Materials Chemistry. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/

content/articlelanding/2002/jm/b204483h/unauth#!divAbstract

4 Chandrasekhar, S. (1960). Radiative Transfer. New York, NY: Dover Publications.

5 Dorian, D. (2019). BMW X6 Gets a Blackest of Black Treatment with Paint That Eats Light. Car and Driver.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28845406/bmw-x6-vantablack/

6 Evans, L. (2016). What Ever Happened to the Blackest Black?. The Outline. https://theoutline.com/post/285/

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7 Ferreira, B. (2019). This Is the Blackest Black Ever Created. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kx

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https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1554903/vantablack-worlds-darkest-material-unveiled-uk-firm

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article/dn3356-mini-craters-key-to-blackest-ever-black/

10 Johnston, I. (2014). Blackest is the new black: Scientists develop a material so dark that you can’t see it…

Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/blackest-is-the-new-black-scientists-have

developed-a-material-so-dark-that-you-cant-see-it-9602504.html

11 Kheir, N. (2003). How black is ‘super black’?. EurekAlert!. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas

es/2003-05/npl-hbi052803.php

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Light and Heat. The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. Page

Numbers 1-21. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786446008642901

13 Massoud, M. (2005). Engineering Thermofluids. New York, NY: Springer.

14 Mizuno, K. (2009). A black body absorber from vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes. Pro

ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. https://www.pnas.org/

content/106/15/6044

15 O’Connor, R. (2016). Anish Kapoor gets his hands on ‘pinkest pink’ after being banned from use by

its creator. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/anish-kapoor

pinkest-pink-blackest-black-paint-war-a7497751.html

16 Surrey NanoSystems. (2014). British breakthrough in world’s darkest material launched at Farnborough

International. Surrey NanoSystems. https://www.surreynanosystems.com/news-media/news/sensi

tive-electro-optical-imaging-and-target-acquisition-systems-launch-at-farnborough-international-air-show

17 Theocharous, E. (2006). Evaluation of a pyroelectric detector with a carbon multiwalled nanotube black

coating in the infrared. Applied Optics. https://www.osapublishing.org/ao/abstract.cfm?uri=ao-45-6-1093