BMW has presented at the Frankfurt International Motor Show the third generation of the X6, the vehicle that created the Sports Activity Coupés segment ten years ago. Together with this incredible model, the German brand has also presented the new and exclusive VBx2 Vantablack nanostructure paint finish, which perfectly enhances the expressive design language of the new BMW X6.
In this way, the new X6 has become the first and only vehicle in the world that has a Vantablack VBx2 paint finish. It should be noted that this amazing show car is the result of the work carried out between BMW and Surrey NanoSystems, the inventors of Vantablack technology. "We had rejected numerous requests from several car manufacturers, but the BMW X6, with its unique and expressive design, made us consider the idea," says Ben Jensen, founder and Technical Director of Surrey NanoSystems.
Any surface covered in Vantablack completely loses its defining characteristics for the human eye, making objects appear two-dimensional. This can be interpreted by the brain as staring at a hole or a vacuum. For this reason, Vantablack paint finish is not recommended for vehicles, since it eliminates virtually all details and design highlights.
To solve this problem, in the BMW X6 show car the VBx2 variant was used, initially developed for use in architectural and scientific applications. Vantablack VBx2 paint can be sprayed and also has a total hemispheric reflection of 1% (THR), which means that it is still considered a “super black” color but at the same time allows a small amount of reflection from all angles.
The name of Vantablack is an acronym for the technology that activates this superior black: Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Array. Each of the carbon nanotubes that make up the matrix has a length between 14 and 50 micrometers and a diameter of 20 nanometers, making it approximately 5,000 times thinner than a human hair. Therefore, about one billion vertically aligned carbon nanotubes fit in a square centimeter. Any light that strikes this surface is almost completely absorbed and converted into heat.
This incredible technology was developed primarily for the coating of space components and must be applied at extremely low temperatures of -430 ° C. Also, all those optical components that are coated with Vantablack allow the observation of faint stars and very distant galaxies that sunlight cannot see.
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