New carbon nanotube-metal hierarchical material is 10x darker than Vantablack

Re:New carbon nanotube-metal hierarchical material is 10x da... by ironfootnz on Sunday September 15, 2019 @04:14AM (#20976152)

O wonder if they could use this to absorb sun light and transform into heat and generate electricity. Looking into the absorption rates in the chart, it’s clear that it would be 30x more efficient than solar panels these days.

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Re:New carbon nanotube-metal hierarchical material is 10x da... by DoctorOetker on Sunday September 15, 2019 @07:32AM (#20976766)

solar panels are way more efficient than 3.333... % , so no, nothing can be 30x more efficient than solar panels these days.

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Re:New carbon nanotube-metal hierarchical material is 10x da... by marcosdumay on Sunday September 15, 2019 @11:19AM (#20977584)

For heating a surface you'll want a material that absorbs the solar spectrum, but is extremely reflective on the heat spectrum. Optimizing the material absorbtivity does not lead to much gain, while optimizing the reflectivity leads to huge results.

This material absorbs every spectrum, what makes it really bad for that application.

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