© MPI-P, Lizenz CC-BY-SA

This material acts as a conductor & an insulator simultaneously

Transparent in nature, it conducts heat along the horizontal layers, while providing thermal insulation vertically

It was only a few months ago that scientists created a new Superhydrophobic material which is “unsinkable”. Scientists developed an air-trapping chamber by putting two aluminum plates together. The resulting material so water repellant, that it refused to sink even when it is damaged or forced underwater by some weight.

Conventional Physics dictates that any material can either be a conductor or an insulator — where the former reflects or radiates it while the latter absorbs but can’t exhibit both properties. When we need to keep things cool, we use thermally conductive materials like electrical components in a computer. On the other hand, when we need to trap the heat, we use insulative material.

This convention may be about to change, according to recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Bayreuth and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. The researchers are able to create a uniform material combining the thermally insulating properties of materials like polystyrene, with the thermally conductive properties of heavy metals like copper which are often used to dissipate heat.

“In principle, our material produced in this way corresponds to the principle of double glazing, It only shows the difference that we not only have two layers, but hundreds.” ~ Markus Retsch, Professor at the U. of Bayreuth

The novel technique employed by scientists enabled them to create material consisting of nanometer-thick glass plates, interspersed with polymer chains— by manipulating which way the heat travels, it can conduct heat very well in one direction while showing good thermal insulation in the other direction.

The presence of many layers gave the material unique properties like reducing the heat transfer. The absence of any interface among the tightly packed multiple horizontal layers, there was a seamless heat transfer. With so many layers packed together, the transfer of heat was greatly reduced in the perpendicular layers — which acted as good thermal insulators.

The testing of the resulting material by scientists recorded that the thermal conductivity of the new material along the horizontal layers was an astonishing 40 times higher than the vertical layers & comparable to thermal paste applied to heat sinks and computer processors. Similarly, the heat-insulating properties in the vertical layers exceeded the performance of commercial plastics by 6x.

The scientists are expected to continue their research in an endeavor to better understand how sound and heat propagation is affected by the structure of the new material. Researchers also see a possible application in the field of high-performance LEDs.

The research was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.