refrigerators tagged posts

New Polymer Films conducting Heat instead of Trapping it

By mixing polymer powder in solution to generate a film that they then stretched, MIT researchers have changed polyethylene’s microstructure, from spaghetti-like clumps of molecular chains (left), to straighter strands (right), allowing heat to conduct through the polymer, better than most metals.
Credit: Image courtesy of Gang Chen et al.

Material may replace many metals as lightweight, flexible heat dissipators in cars, refrigerators, and electronics. Polymers are usually the go-to material for thermal insulation. Think of a silicone oven mitt, or a Styrofoam coffee cup, both manufactured from polymer materials that are excellent at trapping heat.

Now MIT engineers have flipped the picture of the standard polymer insulator, by fabricating thin polymer films that conduct heat – an...

Read More