The record for the world’s darkest material now belongs to Surrey Nanosystems Vantablack. A material that will absorb 99.96 percent of all light that lands on its surface. A substance so dark that shadows won’t fall on Vantablack while all surface details disappear into the darkness.

As the name may suggest Vanta (Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Arrays) consists of a forest of carbon nanotubes grown standing upright on aluminium foil. Any light that strikes the surface simply bounces between the nanotubes till it is completely converted to heat.

Fooling our eyes with a lack of information no light is able to reflect off its surface, forcing shadows to disappear and altering its surface so that it always appears to be perfectly flat.

Currently materials such as Vantablack are used in photographic systems and telescopes but here at Highpants we can see this one making it onto the Range Rovers owned by sports stars.

Reference: Surrey Nanosystems