Polymer films could provide heat conduction

Many components and machines generate heat within their mechanisms which need to be dissipated in order for them to operate, from refrigerators and cars to electronic microprocessors. Generally, this heat dissipation is performed by metals, which adds mass and bulk. Now, however, engineers at MIT have devised a method for turning polyethylene, always previously considered as an insulating material, into a heat conductor. Using such material in place of metal may lead to lighter components and more flexible forms.

In a paper in Nature Communications, Gang Chen, Professor of power engineering at MIT, and colleagues, including collaborators at Argonne National laboratory, described their method for producing the correct structure in polyethylene. This work is based on findings from 2010, in which they fabricated polyethylene fibres that were 300 times more thermally conductive than normal polyethylene and comparable to metals, but the utility of the discovery was limited because ultra-thin fibres are not particularly useful as heat dissipators.