Vantablack: World's Blackest Material

It is a material that is developed by the Surrey NanoSystems in the United Kingdom and it is one of the darkest substances known as it can absorb up to 99.965% of visible light (which is at 663 nm if the light is perpendicular to this material).
Its name is a compound of the acronym VANTA (i.e. vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays) and the colour black.
Properties of vantablack
Vantablack is basically composed of a forest of vertical tubes that are "grown" on a substrate using a well modified chemical vapor deposition process. It is observed that when light strikes Vantablack, instead of bouncing off, it (light) becomes trapped and is continually deflected in between the tubes, eventually getting absorbed and dissipating into heat energy.
Vantablack was an improvement over similar substances developed at the time. Vantablack absorbs a huge amount of light i.e. up to 99.96% of it and it can be created at 752 °F (400 °C). NASA had previously developed a similar type of substance which was grown at 1,380 °F (750 °C), so it required items or materials to be more heat resistant than Vantablack.
The particle fallout and outgassing levels of Vantablack are less. The high levels in similar kind of substances in past had limited their commercial utility. It (Vantablack) also has greater resistance to the mechanical vibration, and has a greater thermal stability.
Applications of vantablack
Being the darkest substance known, this material has a number of potential applications, including the prevention of stray light from entering telescopes as well as improving the performance of infrared cameras both in space and on Earth.
Vantablack may also help in increasing the absorption of heat in the materials used in the concentrated solar power technology and also in military applications such as for thermal camouflage. Its scalability and emissivity support a large range of applications.

By: Prerana Sharma
Content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack