This innovative fabric has resulted in a black dress that holds immense potential in the fashion industry as well as various technological applications, including cameras, solar panels, and telescopes.
Scientists at Cornell University have developed the blackest fabric to date, absorbing 99.87 per cent of light and reflecting only 0.13 per cent, thus qualifying as ‘ultra-black’ — a term for materials that reflect less than 0.5 per cent of light.
This innovative fabric is inspired by the riflebird, a species found in the rainforests of New Guinea and Australia that is known for its remarkable ability to absorb light. The fabric has resulted in a black dress that holds immense potential in the fashion industry as well as various technological applications, including cameras, solar panels, and telescopes. The team has filed a patent for this fabric, which is characterised by its wearability, scalability, and ease of manufacture.
In comparison, the fabric does not match the ‘blackest black’ material created by MIT in 2019, which utilises carbon nanotubes to capture at least 99.995% of light and is the darkest material on record. To produce the ultra-black fabric, researchers dyed white merino wool with polydopamine, a synthetic dye that penetrated the fibres, resulting in a uniform colour.
Additionally, the fabric was treated in a plasma chamber to form nanofibrils, leading to an average total reflectance of 0.13 per cent.
The ultra-black material maintains its colour consistency across a 120-degree angular range, outperforming current commercial options. Its applications extend to solar thermal energy conversion and thermo-regulating camouflage, advantageous for evading infrared detection.
Environmental and mechanical tests confirm the fabric’s resilience while retaining its inherent textile qualities alongside its ultra-black characteristics.
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Secret of riflebird’s velvety black plumage
The riflebird’s striking velvety black plumage derives from melanin pigment coupled with tightly clustered minute filaments that reflect light inward, creating an extraordinary black appearance when viewed straight on but revealing a shiny quality at angles. In a similar approach, new research by a team, including Larissa Shepherd, assistant professor of fibre science at Cornell University, utilises polydopamine, a synthetic melanin, aiming to replicate the riflebird’s unique hierarchical structures, particularly the barbules, in fabric design.
This innovation in ultra-black textiles aims to be more wearable than existing ultra-black materials, maintaining their depth of colour even from wider viewing angles. A notable creation resulting from this research is a black strapless dress by Cornell graduate Zoe Alvarez, which incorporated the ultra-black material with iridescent blue accents reminiscent of the riflebird. In experimental images, while adjusting factors like contrast and brightness, the ultra-black aspect of the dress remained consistent, underscoring its remarkable quality.
Vantablack, the darkest known material
The research, published in Nature Communications, reveals the potential to convert conventional fabrics into ultra-black textiles. Nonetheless, it acknowledges that while this fabric is among the blackest, it does not surpass Vantablack, which is developed by the byana MIT team, which is the darkest known material, absorbing approximately 99.995 per cent of light due to its structure of carbon nanotubes on etched aluminium foil. Professor Shepherd noted that although their material does not absorb as much light as Vantablack, it offers increased air permeability.
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