By                       Rahul Rao                     |              Updated           Jul 23, 2021 8:00 AM          You probab

The world’s worst conductor could be a game changer in the climate crisis

submited by
Style Pass
2021-07-24 10:30:03

By Rahul Rao | Updated Jul 23, 2021 8:00 AM

You probably know that hot tea in a metal cup is far more unpleasant to pick up than hot tea in foam. It’s a classic example of how some materials are better at conducting heat than others. It’s why houses are often insulated with a material like cellulose or fiberglass; it’s why hot liquids come in foam. In particular, metals conduct heat better than non-metals, and solids conduct heat better than gases. That’s why double-glazed windows are better at insulating your house: If you include a thin pocket of air within your windows, then that air will do a lot.  

Researchers at Liverpool University in the U.K. have created a material that, they say, has the worst heat transfer of virtually any solid material humans have ever grasped. If that sounds like a strange direction to go down, it isn’t—a material that’s a terrible heat conductor could make a superb insulator, and materials like it could play a key role in bringing the world to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers published their work Thursday in Science.

“The material we have discovered has the lowest thermal conductivity of any inorganic solid and is nearly as poor a conductor of heat as air itself,” says Matt Rosseinsky, a chemist at Liverpool University in the U.K., and one of the study’s authors, in a statement.

Leave a Comment