Aug 18, 2024 08:00:00

A super black wood-based material called 'Nxylon' that absorbs 99.3% of light is discovered by chance

A research team from the University of British Columbia announced that they have developed a wood-based material called ' Nxylon ' that has a light absorption rate of 99.3%. According to the research team, this Nxylon was discovered by chance during an experiment of a completely unrelated research.

Super‐Black Material Created by Plasma Etching Wood - Cheng - Advanced Sustainable Systems - Wiley Online Library

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adsu.202400184

UBC super-black wood can improve telescopes, optical devices and consumer goods
https://news.ubc.ca/2024/07/ubc-super-black-wood-nxylon/

New Super-Black Material Made of Wood Can Absorb 99.3% of Light : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-super-black-material-made-of-wood-can-absorb-99-3-of-light

Professor Philip Evans and his doctoral student Kenny Cheng of the University of British Columbia were experimenting with using high-energy plasma to improve the water repellency of wood, but when they applied the high-energy plasma to a surface cut perpendicular to the grain of wood, they noticed that the surface turned completely black.

The top row shows the surface of a linden wood cut perpendicular to the grain, while the bottom row shows the surface cut parallel to the grain after plasma treatment. The plasma output increases from left to right, and in particular, f on the far right of the top row has become so black that the annual rings are almost invisible.

After measuring the wood, researchers at

Texas A&M University found that the plasma treatment had changed the structure of the wood's surface, allowing it to absorb 99.3% of visible light. So the team shifted their focus to this new material.

'This ultra-black material is capable of absorbing more than 99% of the light that hits it, which is much higher than regular black paint, which absorbs 97.5% of light,' Professor Evans said.

The research team named this material 'Nxylon' and registered it as a trademark. The name Nxylon is a combination of '

Nyx ,' the Greek goddess of the night, and 'Xylon,' the Greek word for tree.

The surprising feature of Nxylon is that even if a gold coating is applied to the surface to make it conductive, the light absorption rate remains almost unchanged and the color remains black. This is because the mechanism by which Nxylon absorbs light depends on the surface structure, not on paint. In addition, since it is based on wood, it is lightweight, hard, and easy to process.

Professor Evans and his team are already working with jewelry designers and artists to set up a startup to develop a business that will apply Nxylon to watches and jewelry, and they also plan to develop large-scale plasma processing machines that will be needed to produce large-scale Nxylon that can be used in building materials such as ceilings and walls.