True Black

[MahrinSkel]

Not sure how many people are still around that remember the "True Black" exploit in UO Beta.  You could hack a dye tub so it was 0,0,0 RGB, then dye clothing with it which would be completely black, no texturing, just a hole in the screen.

Well, somebody has done it for real.  100% absorbtive nanomaterial across the entire visible spectrum.

--Dave

[Margalis]

Useless without picture.

[Trippy]

No pics because the description is incorrect. The visible spectrum is at around 500 THz. Their material is experimentally showing 88% absorbtion at 11.5 GHz or microwave frequencies, not visible light frequencies.

http://www2.bc.edu/~padillaw/PDF/PRL_100_207402_2008.pdf

[Venkman]

So since this experiment absorbs the light by converting it to heat, is this the sort of thing that'd be good for solar panels? Or is there a lot more to it than just how much light can be absorbed and converted?

[bhodi]

So since this experiment absorbs the light by converting it to heat, is this the sort of thing that'd be good for solar panels? Or is there a lot more to it than just how much light can be absorbed and converted?

It's incredibly useful on things where reflected light is bad, like the interior surfaces of telescopes. It would have to get better absorption than 88% for this, though. There was a nano-material that was some 99.X percent absorbed light that I saw an article on a while back.

You might be able to use it as a sensing mechanism for specific wavelengths of light.

[Trippy]

So since this experiment absorbs the light by converting it to heat, is this the sort of thing that'd be good for solar panels? Or is there a lot more to it than just how much light can be absorbed and converted?

If enough money is poured into thermoelectric generator research maybe.

[JoeTF]

So since this experiment absorbs the light by converting it to heat, is this the sort of thing that'd be good for solar panels? Or is there a lot more to it than just how much light can be absorbed and converted?

It's very, very good for thermal cameras. Huh, they even say so in the text;-)

[Furiously]

So, I'm likely to see this in my microwave popping popcorn in the near future?

[Lantyssa]

So, I'm likely to see this in my microwave popping popcorn in the near future?

Or not see it.  It absorbs light!

[Nebu]

So since this experiment absorbs the light by converting it to heat, is this the sort of thing that'd be good for solar panels? Or is there a lot more to it than just how much light can be absorbed and converted?

The thing you want from UV absorption is a high quantum yield of electronic excitation.  Conversion of light to heat is easy.  What you want in solar energy conversion is to capture UV/vis-induced photoexcited states and use these excited states for electron transfer events while losing little energy by radiative decay.  Of course I'm no photochemist, but that's the process as I understand it.