全世界最黑的材料被研發出來了
You might think you already know black – even super-black Vantablack, previously the blackest material known to science – but researchers just came up with a material that takes black to a new level of blackness.
你可能認爲你已經知道黑色，甚至是曾經科學已知的最黑的材料——特黑的Vantablack，但研究人員剛提出了一種材料，它把黑度提高到了一個新的層次。The new, as-yet-unnamed ultra-black material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs), microscopic carbon strings that are a little like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, according to the team behind the project.
該項目團隊表示，這種尚未命名的新型超黑材料是由垂直排列的碳納米管（CNTs）製成的，它是一種微型碳鏈，有點像長滿小樹的毛茸茸的森林。And here's the rub – this CNT material can absorb more than 99.995 percent of incoming light, beating the 99.96 percent that Vantablack is able to absorb.
但是，這種碳納米管材料可以吸收99.995%以上的入射光線，超過了能能吸收99.96%入射光線的Vantablack材料。
"In other words, it reflected 10 times less light than all other superblack materials, including Vantablack," explains an MIT release.
“換句話說，它反射的光比其他所有超黑材料（包括Vantablack材料）少10倍，”麻省理工學院在一份新聞稿中解釋道。
Like some of the best scientific discoveries, this record-setting black stuff was discovered by accident.
就像部分最佳科學發現一樣，這種創紀錄的黑色物質也是偶然發現的。The researchers were looking at ways to grow CNTs on electrically conductive materials like aluminium, and it was during these experiments that they noticed the blackness of the materials they were growing on specially treated aluminium foil.
研究人員在尋找在導電材料（例如鋁）上植入碳納米管的方法，正是在這項實驗中，他們注意到他們在特殊處理的鋁箔上植入的這種材料的黑度。"I remember noticing how black it was before growing carbon nanotubes on it, and then after growth, it looked even darker," says mechanical engineer Kehang Cui, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. "So I thought I should measure the optical reflectance of the sample."
來自中國上海交通大學的機械工程師崔克航表示：“我記得我注意過在植入碳納米管之前它的黑度，而在植入之後，它看起來更黑了，所以我認爲我應該測一下樣品的光反射率。”That's when the ultra-powerful light absorption properties were recorded – from every possible angle, the material soaked up virtually all the light directed at it.
這種超強光吸收特性就是在這時被記錄下來的——從每一個可能的角度來看，這種材料幾乎都吸收了所有射向它的光。What's not clear is why the material is like this. It might be the way that the etched aluminium, on which the oxide layer is removed, combines with the carbon nanotubes in some way, but more research is going to be needed to know for sure.
這種材料爲什麼會是這個樣子目前還不清楚。這可能是去掉氧化層的蝕刻鋁與碳納米管在某種程度上結合的方式，但這還需要進行更多的研究來證實。
