Polyethylene is the most widely used polymer in the world, most commonly used for packaging and plastic shopping bags. And like most polymers it is a very good insulators for both heat and electricity. But now an MIT team has developed a new process that causes the polymer to remain an electrical insulator but conduct heat very efficiently in just one direction, unlike metals, which conduct equally well in all directions. This may make the new material especially useful for applications where it is important to draw heat away from an object, such as a computer processor chip…
Related Articles:
- Thermeleon roof tiles make saving energy as clear as black and white
- Electrical rubber could be used as synthetic skin for robots
- MIT’s ‘flexible camera’ replaces lens with fiber web
- Compostable plastics breakthrough sounds sweet
- Newly developed nanomaterial could boost data storage density and cars’ fuel efficiency
- Energy efficiency breakthroughs at MIT and Berkeley