Plastic Insulator Becomes a Heat Conductor

Plastics are excellent insulators, meaning they efficiently trap heat—a quality that is an advantage in something such as a coffee cup sleeve. But this insulating property is less desirable in products such as plastic casings for laptops and mobile phones, which can overheat in part because the coverings trap the heat that the devices produce.

Now a team of engineers at MIT has developed a polymer thermal conductor, a plastic material that works as a heat conductor to dissipate heat rather than insulating it. The new polymers, which are lightweight and flexible, conduct 10 times as much heat as most commercially used polymers.

“Traditional polymers are both electrically and thermally insulating,” says Yanfei Xu, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “The discovery and development of electrically conductive polymers has led to novel electronic applications such as flexible displays and wearable biosensors.

“Our polymer thermally conducts and removes heat much more efficiently,” Xu continues. “We believe polymers could be made into next-generation heat conductors for advanced thermal management applications, such as a self-cooling...