Black got even blacker: Darkest fabric EVER blocks 99.87% of light

Scientists have created the blackest fabric yet – and it could be adorning your evening wear in a few years. 

Like an eternal black hole, the fabric absorbs 99.87 per cent of light while reflecting the remaining 0.13 per cent. 

That makes it officially ‘ultra–black’ – defined as reflecting less than 0.5 per cent of the light that hits it – or as Spinal Tap might put it, ‘none more black’. 

The scientists, from Cornell University, have used the material to create a black dress, inspired by a bird that has the similarly impressive ability to absorb light.

Aside from revolutionising the fashion world, the material has a variety of other uses, including in cameras, solar panels and telescopes. 

The scientists have applied for a patent for the fabric, which they say is wearable, scalable and easy to manufacture.

While this fabric is very black, it pales in comparison to the ‘blackest black’ foil, created by researchers at MIT in 2019. 

Made from carbon nanotubes, this foil captures at least 99.995 per cent of light – making it the blackest material on record.

To make the ultra–black fabric, the team dyed a white merino wool knit with polydopamine, a synthetic compound that can be used as a dark dye. 

The researchers had to have the polydopamine penetrate into the fibres of the fabric, so every bit of it became black. 

Next, the team etched the material in a plasma chamber to create nanofibrils – extremely small and spiky nanoscale growths. 

Analysis revealed that the fabric had an average total reflectance of 0.13 per cent, making it the darkest fabric yet reported. 

It remained ‘ultra–black’ across a 120–degree angular span, meaning it appears the same at up to a 60–degree angle either side or straight on, superior to currently available commercial materials. 

The ultra–black fabric has potential in solar thermal applications, converting absorbed light into thermal energy. 

It could be used for thermo–regulating camouflage, which hides the person or object from infrared (thermal) detection. 

‘Environmental and mechanical tests also prove the material’s resilience, showing the retention of its natural fabric characteristics alongside its ultra–black properties,’ they report. 

According to the experts, the project took inspiration from the magnificent riflebird (Ptiloris magnificus), found in the rainforests of western New Guinea and northeast Australia. 

The bird’s striking velvety black plumage comes from melanin pigment combined with tightly bunched minute filaments that serve to deflect light inward.  

This renders the bird extraordinarily black when viewed straight on, but when viewed at an angle its plumage appears shiny. 

Similarly, polydopamine used in the first stage of the team’s process is a synthetic melanin. 

‘The riflebird has these really interesting hierarchical structures, the barbules, along with the melanin, so we wanted to combine those aspects in a textile,’ said Larissa Shepherd, assistant professor of fibre science at Cornell University. 

‘From a design perspective, I think it’s exciting because a lot of the ultra–black that exists isn’t really as wearable as ours and it stays ultra–black even from wider angles.’ 

Cornell graduate Zoe Alvarez created a black strapless dress that combined circles of the ultra–black material with iridescent blue – much like the riflebird. 

When the contrast, hue, vibrance or brightness were adjusted on images of the dress, all the other colors changed but ultra–black remained the same. 

The work, detailed in Nature Communications, shows that a conventional natural fabric can be transformed into an ultra–black one. 

But the answer to the question famously uttered by Spinal Tap, ‘how much more black could this be?’, is actually ‘a little bit’. 

Although Cornell University has come up with the blackest fabric, a product called Vantablack is the blackest material ever made. 

A team at MIT developed the coating, which consists of carbon nanotube ‘forests’ grown on chlorine–etched aluminium foil. 

The material is 10 times blacker than any previously reported material, capturing at least 99.995 per cent of incoming light.

Professor Shepherd told the Daily Mail: ‘[Our material] does not absorb as much light as Vanta, but that is because we have air permeability and therefore higher transmission of light.

‘In a textile structure, we have something that is breathable and can be viewed at a wide angle, while still maintaining its ultra-black quality.’