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WonderArt fact

Vantablack, a coating made in Britain from tiny carbon tubes, absorbs up to 99.965% of visible light. A crumpled or curved object coated with it loses all visible shape and looks like a flat hole cut out of space.

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Vantablack was unveiled in 2014 by Surrey NanoSystems, a British company, after early work at the UK's National Physical Laboratory. VANTA stands for 'vertically aligned nanotube arrays'. The original version is not a paint: it is a dense forest of carbon nanotubes, tubes of carbon atoms thousands of times thinner than a human hair, grown upright on a surface. Light that enters the forest bounces between the tubes until it is absorbed and turned into heat, so almost none returns to the eye. Its main uses are scientific, such as stopping stray light in telescopes and cameras. In 2016 it emerged that the sculptor Anish Kapoor held exclusive rights to use it in art, which angered many artists. Stuart Semple replied with 'the world's pinkest pink', a paint sold to anyone except Kapoor, and later with cheaper black paints. In 2019 MIT engineers reported an even darker material.

Türkçe oku
Vantablack, İngiltere'de son derece ince karbon tüplerinden üretilen bir kaplamadır ve görünür ışığın %99,965'ine kadarını soğurur. Onunla kaplanan buruşuk ya da kavisli bir cisim bütün hatlarını yitirir, boşlukta açılmış dümdüz bir delik gibi görünür.

Vantablack'i 2014'te İngiliz şirketi Surrey NanoSystems tanıttı; ilk çalışmalar İngiltere'nin Ulusal Fizik Laboratuvarı'nda yapılmıştı. Adındaki VANTA, İngilizcede “dikey hizalanmış nanotüp dizileri” anlamına gelen ifadenin kısaltmasıdır. Özgün Vantablack bir boya değildir: Bir yüzeyin üzerinde dimdik büyütülen, sık bir karbon nanotüp ormanıdır. Karbon nanotüpler, karbon atomlarından oluşan ve insan saçından binlerce kat ince tüplerdir. Bu ormana giren ışık tüplerin arasında sekip durur, sonunda soğrulup ısıya dönüşür; göze neredeyse hiç ışık geri dönmez. Asıl kullanım alanı bilimseldir; örneğin teleskoplarda ve kameralarda istenmeyen ışığı engeller. 2016'da, malzemeyi sanatta kullanma hakkının yalnızca heykeltıraş Anish Kapoor'a verildiği ortaya çıktı; bu, pek çok sanatçıyı kızdırdı. Stuart Semple, Kapoor dışında herkese satılan “dünyanın en pembe pembesi” adlı boyayla karşılık verdi, ardından daha ucuz siyah boyalar çıkardı. 2019'da MIT mühendisleri daha da koyu bir malzeme geliştirdiklerini duyurdu.

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