New super black material made of wood can absorb 99.3% of light

There’s black, and then there’s super-black. A new super-black wood-based material has been created that absorbs more than 99 percent of the light that hits it. What’s more, this material was discovered almost by accident.

Scientists were working on hydrophobic technologies for wood using high-energy plasma gas – and noticed that the application of the gas caused the tips of the wood cells to turn completely black.

Further research revealed the incredible light-absorbing properties of the new super-black material.

A team led by PhD student Kenny Cheng of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada has named their new material Nxylon. Nyx is the Greek goddess of the night, and xylon is the Greek word for wood. Nxylon could find applications in everything from space telescopes to luxury jewelry.

“Nxylon’s composition combines the benefits of natural materials with unique structural features, making the material lightweight, stiff and easy to cut into complex shapes,” explains senior author Philip Evans, a materials scientist at UBC.

The material has a velvety appearance, its inventors report. Plasma treatment actually changes the fine structures on the wood’s surface, introducing recesses that help capture light and minimize any reflections.

Indeed, when a gold alloy was applied to the material, it remained black. This shows that the wood structure has changed – it is not simply an additional coating, but a reconfiguration of the basic characteristics of the material.

Super-black materials are valuable in industries such as astronomy, solar energy, and optics, where they help devices operate more accurately or more efficiently by reducing unwanted reflections. For example, super-black materials can reduce glare and improve clarity in telescopes.

These materials are also popular in art and design because the super black creates striking visual effects by providing sharp contrast with bright colors nearby. This is similar to how some birds and peacock spiders use super black with bright colors in their mating displays.

The team that made the discovery believes that Nxylon could also be used in everyday items and fashion accessories.

“We anticipate that our findings will lead to interest in plasma etching as a method for creating super-black wood, which could lead to commercial applications of this technology,” the researchers write in the published paper.

The new material has many advantages. It uses wood (specifically lime), which is a renewable material. It also does not require any complicated pre-treatments, which reduces costs and makes the production of the material more profitable.

The researchers believe Nxylon could replace rare, expensive black woods like ebony and rosewood, as well as the black gemstone onyx. That’s still a ways off, but the team is now looking for commercial partnerships through a new startup.

While we’ve seen materials that are even blacker and absorb even more light, this new material shows great promise for large-scale production – the same technique could be used with other types of wood, too.

“Nxylon can be manufactured from sustainable and renewable materials that are common in North America and Europe, opening up new possibilities for using wood,” Evans says.

The research was published in Advanced Sustainable Systems.

Related news