Thread: Heat at the Speed of Sound

Apparently this phenomenon is rare for a few materials but not for pencil lead (graphite). They’re saying this is huge for electronics. Actually I need someone to explain this .....

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...peed-of-sound/

That is interesting. Seems that it works up to 120 Kelvin.

I wonder if it would have any bearing on insulation materials since heat dissipation might be viewed as the inverse of insulation.

I think that heat dissipation is one of the key obstacles to creating smaller micro processors.

They seem to be saying "watch this space in 15 years" on that score.

Not sure what the implications are for the "lead in one's pencil" as popularly understood.

Graphite implants might be a whole new industry

Originally Posted by geordief

That is interesting. Seems that it works up to 120 Kelvin.

I wonder if it would have any bearing on insulation materials since heat dissipation might be viewed as the inverse of insulation.

I think that heat dissipation is one of the key obstacles to creating smaller micro processors.

They seem to be saying "watch this space in 15 years" on that score.

Not sure what the implications are for the "lead in one's pencil" as popularly understood.

Graphite implants might be a whole new industry

As an investor I would take an interest in a company pursuing this but I don't think I can wait 15 years

When I was going to school I took a summer job in a refractory plant that made heat resistant plastics. They called them plastics but they were moldable. What we did was take a mixture of ingredients with the consistency of wet clay and pound it into 50 lb squares and ship them off to various buyers. One of the products we made was called Graflok which contained a good portion of very black graphite. It was used to line the troughs (hammered into place) where molten steel was poured upon in a steel mill. I always thought that graphite was heat resistant. So can something be heat resistant and move heat at the same time?

Originally Posted by zinjanthropos

So can something be heat resistant and move heat at the same time?

I'd have thought "heat resistant" just means that something is not degraded by heat.

If heat moves quickly through graphite that might imply that it might degrade quickly but you say it doesn't.

Perhaps it moves through in a very orderly fashion and so no damage is done.

I have no idea really.

We need the chemists to weigh in perhaps.

Originally Posted by geordief

Originally Posted by zinjanthropos

So can something be heat resistant and move heat at the same time?

I'd have thought "heat resistant" just means that something is not degraded by heat.

If heat moves quickly through graphite that might imply that it might degrade quickly but you say it doesn't.

Perhaps it moves through in a very orderly fashion and so no damage is done.

I have no idea really.

We need the chemists to weigh in perhaps.

I'm not sure myself. Maybe compressed graphite has different properties. I'm all for the chemists entering the picture.

It's due to a phenomenon called "second sound" and works when collisions between phonons conserve momentum. AFAIK in the experiments on graphite it works only over small distances of a few microns, so it will not affect the thermal properties of your pencil lead...