Vantablack

Vantablack (pronounced van-tah-blak)

(1) A black material which absorbs 99.965% of light reaching its surface.

(2) A shade of black of extraordinary blackness.

(3) Used loosely, of or pertaining to something very black.   

2014: A coining in Modern English, the construct being Vanta (the acronym for Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays) + black.  Black (in the sense of the color (absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless)) was from the Middle English blak, black & blake, from the Old English blæc (black, dark (also “ink”), from the Proto-West Germanic blak, from the Proto-Germanic blakaz (burnt).  Related were the Dutch blaken (to burn), the Low German blak & black (blackness, black paint (black) ink) and the Old High German blah (black), possibly from the primitive Indo-European bhleg- (to burn, shine).

Vantablack is built from clusters of vertical nanotubes on a substrate using a modified chemical vapour deposition process (CVD).  When light strikes Vantablack, instead of reflecting back and thus being visible, it becomes trapped, bouncing among the tubes until absorbed, dissipating into heat.  The densities are impressive for physical stuff; each square centimetre contains about a billion nanotubes.  Industrially, it’s an improvement over previous products because it can be created at 750°f (400°c) whereas an earlier substance, developed by NASA, demanded a 1380°f (750°c) environment.  However, in manufacturing, this is expensive and, Vantablack can be grown only on materials capable of enduring this temperature, further limiting commercial application.  Despite this Vantablack is a functional improvement which also offers better thermal stability and a greater resistance to mechanical vibration.  First developed in the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, trademark is held by Surrey NanoSystems.  The blackest known material ever in earthly existence, Vantablack is used to improve the performance of both ground and space-based cameras, improve heat-absorption in solar arrays and prevent stray light entering telescopes.  The military apply it to thermal camouflage because if used to coat 3D objects, they appear visually flat “black holes” without any shape or depth.

Potential LVBD customer.  Lindsay Lohan and the quest for the perfect LBD.

Surrey Nanosystems in 2016 granted Sir Anish Kapoor (an Indian-born UK British sculptor), the sole licence exclusively to use Vantablack for all “artistic purposes”, meaning no other artist could produce work using the material.  The exclusivity clause attracted much criticism from other artists who claimed it was absurd to suggest an individual could enjoy sole rights to a color.  While that might have been the consequence, what Surry did was licence the use of a commercial product for certain limited purposes, something hardly unusual in industry.  What triggered the controversy was that it involved restricted artists producing their product for some commercial gain; there is nothing to prevent anyone creating an artwork using Vantablack; it just can’t be exhibited or sold and must exist only for personal enjoyment.  Some artists actually responded by producing and trade-making certain products and making them freely available to any artist except Sir Anish; he was banned.  Legal commentators and philosophers have about the written about what is clearly a restraint of trade and the consensus seems to be Surrey is on sound legal ground but there should be a debate about whether intellectual property in the matter of the use of materials should be extended to art.