全世界最黑的材料被研发出来了

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.

你可能认为你已经知道黑色，甚至是曾经科学已知的最黑的材料——特黑的Vantablack，但研究人员刚提出了一种材料，它把黑度提高到了一个新的层次。

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.

该项目团队表示，这种尚未命名的新型超黑材料是由垂直排列的碳纳米管（CNTs）制成的，它是一种微型碳链，有点像长满小树的毛茸茸的森林。

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，这种碳纳米管材料可以吸收99.995%以上的入射光线，超过了能能吸收99.96%入射光线的Vantablack材料。

"In other words, it reflected 10 times less light than all other superblack materials, including Vantablack," explains an MIT release.

“换句话说，它反射的光比其他所有超黑材料（包括Vantablack材料）少10倍，”麻省理工学院在一份资讯稿中解释道。

Like some of the best scientific discoveries, this record-setting black stuff was discovered by accident.

就像部分最佳科学发现一样，这种创纪录的黑色物质也是偶然发现的。

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.

研究人员在寻找在导电材料（例如铝）上植入碳纳米管的方法，正是在这项实验中，他们注意到他们在特殊处理的铝箔上植入的这种材料的黑度。

"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."

来自中国上海交通大学的机械工程师崔克航表示：“我记得我注意过在植入碳纳米管之前它的黑度，而在植入之后，它看起来更黑了，所以我认为我应该测一下样品的光反射率。”

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.

这种超强光吸收特性就是在这时被记录下来的——从每一个可能的角度来看，这种材料几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.

这种材料为什么会是这个样子目前还不清楚。这可能是去掉氧化层的蚀刻铝与碳纳米管在某种程度上结合的方式，但这还需要进行更多的研究来证实。