Researchers have demonstrated the ability to engineer materials that are both stiff and capable of insulating against heat. This combination of properties is extremely unusual and holds promise for a range of applications, such as the development of new thermal insulation coatings for electronic devices.
"Materials that have a high elastic modulus tend to also be highly thermally conductive, and vice versa," says Jun Liu, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University.
"In other words, if a material is stiff, it does a good job of conducting heat. And if a material is not stiff, then it is usually good at insulating against heat.
"But there are instances where you'd want materials that are stiff, but are also good insulators," Liu says. "For example, you might want to create thermal insulation coatings to protect electronics from high temperatures. Historically, that's been a challenge.
"We've now discovered a range of materials that are both stiff and excellent thermal insulators. What's more, we can engineer the materials as needed to control how stiff they are and how thermally conductive they are."
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