Vantablack, the world's darkest substance, may have some competition. Canadian scientists have created a super-black substance that has the potential to be cheaper, more durable, and easier to manufacture… and it's made from wood.
The material, trademarked Nxylon (“niks-uh-lon”), is named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of night, and xylon, the Greek word for wood. It is being developed by a team led by Prof. Philip Evans at the University of British Columbia.
Nxylon was discovered by chance when Evans and his doctoral student Kenny Cheng were trying to make wood more water-repellent by exposing it to high-energy plasma. When the surface of cut limewood samples was subjected to the plasma treatment, the cut ends of the porous cells that make up the wood changed in structure.
Simply put, this new light-absorbing structure caused the entire treated surface layer of the wood to take on a velvety, “ultra-black” appearance. When the material was analyzed by colleagues at Texas A&M University, it was found to reflect less than 1% of visible light. In comparison, regular black paint usually reflects at least 2.5%.
UBC Forestry/Ally Penders
And what's more, it was determined that wood from other tree species, as well as lime, could be used. The surface layer that changes its structure is only about 0.5 to 1 mm thick. This means that many thin sheets of Nxylon can be produced from a single sheet of wood.
Among other things, the material could be used in better-performing telescopes and other optical devices, more efficient solar cells, and even consumer products like jewelry and luxury watches. In the case of the latter two, Nxylon could be a less costly and more sustainable alternative to black hardwoods like ebony and rosewood.
UBC Forestry/Ally Penders
Although Nxylon currently reflects A little While it is lighter than Vantablack, Evans believes that this will need to change as the technology is further developed. Also, while Vantablack is made up of brittle, costly, vertically oriented carbon nanotube forests, that is not the case for Evans’ material.
“Nxylon is made from wood, which is a renewable material, and we can make about 200,000 watch faces from one basswood tree,” he tells us. “We found a way to make the surface less brittle. Nxylon sheets can be made in 30 minutes […] “I am confident that we can accelerate the process with a device for commercial production.”
An article on the research was recently published in the journal Advanced Sustainable SystemsThe technology is planned to be commercialized through a subsidiary company called Nxylon Corporation of Canada.
Source: UBC