In Douglas Adams’s science fiction novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the narrator describes a spaceship so black that “light just seems to fall into it,” blocking out the sun during rock concerts for dramatic effect. Such extreme blackness has been pursued by scientists for decades for its potential use in limiting noise in optical and sensing systems.
Now researchers report an ultrablack coating that absorbs more than 99.9% of visible light while meeting key durability standards for automotive coatings. This new coating could be used in the production of luxury vehicles (Matter Light 2026, DOI: 10.1016/j.matlit.2026.100015).
“Deep black finishes have long been the premium choice and signature color for luxury cars due to their elegant appearance, powerful visual impact, and luxurious undertone,” says Zhiwei Liu, a research chemist in color technology at the Nipsea Group and the lead author of the study. Automotive companies, he says, have been actively pursuing “mass-processable ultrablack coating solutions with extreme blackness.”
In 2014 Surrey NanoSystems developed Vantablack, a coating made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, hollow cylinders of carbon atoms that are only a few nanometers in diameter and absorb nearly all incoming visible light. The material, which gives objects an almost 2D appearance, became famous beyond the scientific community when artist Anish Kapoor acquired exclusive artistic rights to use it.
Five years later, BMW presented a Vantablack-coated concept car whose “black hole” appearance drew widespread attention. But Vantablack also has practical limitations, as coatings based on nanotube forests are delicate, as well as difficult and expensive to manufacture at industrial scale.
For ultrablack materials, balancing optical performance with manufacturability and durability is a challenge. “It’s really hard to have it both ways, super black and super robust,” says John Lehman, physicist and senior research scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Rather than relying solely on fragile vertical carbon-nanotube forests, the new study combines the nanotubes with conventional carbon-black pigment. Strong interactions between the two carbon materials cause the carbon-black particles to arrange themselves along the nanotubes in what the authors describe as a “connecting-the-dots” structure. The resulting coating develops a rough landscape of microscopic peaks and valleys that act as optical traps, with light entering these structures and undergoing multiple scattering events before escaping. This topology, combined with the already strong light-absorbing properties of carbon black, enables the coating to absorb more than 99.9% of visible light.
Researchers emphasize that this combination can be made with standard industrial milling equipment and that the coating can be applied using conventional automotive spray-coating techniques. It also passes humidity, water-resistance, and adhesion tests, making it more applicable than its predecessors.
Whether the coating is truly the blackest black may be difficult to determine. “The biggest challenge, once you get to that level of blackness, is actually measuring it,” says Lehman, who studies ultrablack coatings that can suppress stray reflections in optical instruments and sensing systems. “That’s as difficult as making the coating itself when you’re talking about four nines,” he says, referring to the reflection ratio of 99.99%.
