clipped from: www.abc.net.au   
Julie Steenhuysen

Scientists have created the blackest material on Earth that absorbs more than 99.9% of light and say it could one day be used to block defence signals or create highly efficient solar panels.

black paint
The new material is nearly 200 times darker than basic black paint

The substance was created from carbon nanotubes by Professor Pulickel Ajayan, of Rice University in Houston, and team whose work will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters.

The material is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness
And the material is close to the long-sought ideal black, which could absorb all colours of light and reflect none

The substance has a total reflective index of 0.045%, which is more than three times darker than the nickel-phosphorous alloy that now holds the record as the world's darkest material.

Basic black paint, by comparison, has a reflective index of 5% to 10%