Thermal conductance can be controlled like waves using nanostructures
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - 13:41
in Physics & Chemistry
Thermal conduction is a familiar everyday phenomenon. In a hot sauna, for instance, you can sit comfortably on a wooden bench that has a temperature of 100C (212F), but if you touch a metallic nail with the same temperature, you will hurt yourself. The difference of these two experiences is due to the fact that some materials, such as metals, conduct heat well, whereas some other materials, such as wood, do not. It is therefore commonly thought that thermal conductance is simply a materials parameter. Now, researchers have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to change the thermal conductance of a material by tuning the wave-like properties of heat flow, by orders of magnitude, using nanostructuring.