Nanostructured polymer films with metal-like thermal conductivity

(a) Thermally insulative bulk polymers have disordered and entangled chains. (b) Thermally conductive polymers have ordered and disentangled chains.

Polymers continue to infiltrate into modern technologies ranging from microelectronics to Dreamliner airplanes, thanks to their unique combination of properties not available from other materials. They are lightweight and easy to process. Traditional polymers are also thermal insulators, a characteristic greatly desired for the Styrofoam coffee cup. But it is quite a nuisance for the microelectronic industry, etc., because undissipated heat causes undesirable overheating and harms the device performance.

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Yanfei Xu etc, Nanostructured polymer films with metal-like thermal conductivity, Nature Communications 10, 1711 (2019)

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