What is Ventablack? Is it really the world’s darkest material?

Vanta which stands for Vertically Aligned Nanotube Array has been called the “world’s blackest black”. It absorbs 99% of the light that hits it, creating the illusion of a void. It is composed of carbon nanotubes, which are spaced keeping 99.95% of the volume empty to allow light particles to enter, where light is repeatedly reflected until absorbed. A pavilion at 2018 winter Olympics in South Korea has been sprayed with Ventablack VBx2. The building is a pavilion for car giant Hyundai and has been designed by British architect Asif Khan. In addition to incredible light absorption, this material has many other highly attractive properties such as high proportion of free space, tolerance to thermal cycling etc, which are highly desirable especially in space applications. It is believed to be so dark that it makes objects look permanently two dimensional.