Physicists have found a metal that conducts electricity but not heat

[JoKimTechTips]

http://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-have-found-a-metal-that-conducts-electricity-but-not-heat

this could be used for PC hardware and stuff, that would be really cool. 

[Atmos]

Post doesn't meet posting criteria for this section. Might want to check -> this <- out and edit it to standards

 

Now as for the post, I... I don't understand how this works. Like, legitimately. This kind of hurts my head to comprehend, its breaking everything I've been taught about conductors... kind of like infinite mass without matter, or expansion without movement. Science is scary stuff my dudes.

 

[hconverse02]

Wouldn't all the heat that is build up transfered to anything not made of this metal?

[Tieox]

But can it be used for a BBQ in space?

[Sniperfox47]

Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place, but how does this have applications in computer electronics? Where inside your computer do you want heat insulators?

[DocSwag]

Interesting... I wonder if this could potentially be used in Thermelectric Generators somehow; perhaps by sandwiching layers of Vanadium Dioxide between layers of the N-type and P-type semi conductors in order to greatly reduce the thermal conductivity of the n-type and p-type parts at little cost of size... This seems very interesting indeed...

[DocSwag]

Wowz. I just did a little more research and found that below 66C it's actually a semiconductor 0_O. I wonder if this could be exploited somehow in electronics or something. I can't think of any way off the top of my head but I'm sure there's a way.

[Wolther]

I don't understand. electricity is still energy, and heat is still energy. 

[agent_x007]

Heat is a energy in form of "excited" particles (random electrons carry heat according to OP's link).
Electricity is a energy in form of "flow" (ie. electrons go one way, and carry a charge with them).

They discovered, that Vanadium Dioxide has a atomic build structure, that prevent electrons from carrying heat with electricity in some situations*.
*It needs to be heated to over 66C to conduct heat as well as electricity. At room temp or below, it's heat insulator.

Here are quotes :

Quote

"For electrons, heat is a random motion. Normal metals transport heat efficiently because there are so many different possible microscopic configurations that the individual electrons can jump between."

"In contrast, the coordinated, marching-band-like motion of electrons in vanadium dioxide is detrimental to heat transfer as there are fewer configurations available for the electrons to hop randomly between,"

 

[Wolther]

2 minutes ago, agent_x007 said:

Heat is a energy in form of "excited" particles (random electrons carry heat).
Electricity is a energy in form of electrons "flow" (electrons go one way, and carry a charge with them).

Okay, but in order for electricity to flow it needs to counter resistance, which is why voltage exist. Voltage gives more energy so the electrons can flow. More voltage = more heat once a electron 'collides' with another particle. So unless this metal has no resistance its gonna transfer heat.. 

[agent_x007]

3 minutes ago, Wolther said:

Okay, but in order for electricity to flow it needs to counter resistance, which is why voltage exist. Voltage gives more energy so the electrons can flow. More voltage = more heat once a electron 'collides' with another particle. So unless this metal has no resistance its gonna transfer heat.. 

I edited my post and added quotes from OP's link.
I think they explain this better (I'm not a eng native speaker).

[Godlygamer23]

Wouldn't this imply that it has 100% efficiency? From what I have learned, 100% efficiency is not possible due to Conservation of Energy.

[Misanthrope]

@Godlygamer23 The energy has to go somewhere, I'd hate to see really efficient electronics with this before we know if they're radioactive for example.

[Misanthrope]

14 minutes ago, Wolther said:

Okay, but in order for electricity to flow it needs to counter resistance, which is why voltage exist. Voltage gives more energy so the electrons can flow. More voltage = more heat once a electron 'collides' with another particle. So unless this metal has no resistance its gonna transfer heat.. 

The energy has to go somewhere. Maybe it offers very little resistance because the reaction causes some electrons to bond with an element in the environment or worst, just shoots them out randomly becoming slightly radioactive.

[HippY]

8 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Wouldn't this imply that it has 100% efficiency? From what I have learned, 100% efficiency is not possible due to Conservation of Energy.

as far as I understand it is not absolute 0% waste, there is some heat generated, but much smaller compared to the random drift current

[agent_x007]

10 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Wouldn't this imply that it has 100% efficiency? From what I have learned, 100% efficiency is not possible due to Conservation of Energy.

 

3 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

@Godlygamer23 The energy has to go somewhere, I'd hate to see really efficient electronics with this before we know if they're radioactive for example.

What efficiency ?
Vanadium Dioxide simply acts as a heat insulator below 66C and a heat conductor above that.
It's electric conductor regardless of temperature.

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, agent_x007 said:

What efficiency ?
It simply acts as a heat insulator below 66C and a heat conductor above that.
It's electric conductor regardless of temperature.

Everything has efficiency. Even dealing with heat insulators, some heat will pass through.

[agent_x007]

5 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Everything has efficiency. Even dealing with heat insulators, some heat will pass through.

Direct quote from article :
 

Quote

Surprisingly, they found that the thermal conductivity that could be attributed to the electrons in the material was 10 times smaller than that amount predicted by the Wiedemann-Franz Law.

Here's wikipedia on that law : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiedemann–Franz_law

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, agent_x007 said:

Direct quote from article :
 

Here's wikipedia on that law it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiedemann–Franz_law

It sounds like they don't fully understand the behavior but it is extremely unlikely for this material to just violate the laws of thermodynamics and requiring a completely new paradigm in contemporary physics and our perception of the universe.

 

The simplest explanation is almost always accurate: they're probably missing something they have been unable to detect accurately.

[agent_x007]

From what I understand - they think, there's simply not enough free electrons to transfer heat, because most of them are tied together.
Unless you add energy (in this case heat), electrons don't have enough energy to move around freely (they move "in-sync" as article states). 

First heat semicondutor ?

PS. They didn't said it's 100% insulator or 100% condutor.

[Dackzy]

well this is neat and very interesting 

[DocSwag]

58 minutes ago, agent_x007 said:

 

What efficiency ?
Vanadium Dioxide simply acts as a heat insulator below 66C and a heat conductor above that.
It's electric conductor regardless of temperature.

Incorrect, actually. It acts as a heat conductor and semiconductor below 66C and an electrical conductor and heat insulator above that.

1 hour ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Wouldn't this imply that it has 100% efficiency? From what I have learned, 100% efficiency is not possible due to Conservation of Energy.

I'm assuming it's not a perfect insulator; as far as I know that's impossible with matter. It's probably just a very good one.

[Prysin]

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG, WE NEED THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!!

[Carclis]

2 hours ago, JoKimTechTips said:

http://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-have-found-a-metal-that-conducts-electricity-but-not-heat

this could be used for PC hardware and stuff, that would be really cool. 

I'm not convinced that it would have much relevance in computer hardware since thermal conductivity is pretty much always desirable in electrical conductors, allowing the them to better transfer heat away from themselves rather than just building up more heat and melting.

[DrMikeNZ]

2 hours ago, DocSwag said:

Wowz. I just did a little more research and found that below 66C it's actually a semiconductor 0_O. I wonder if this could be exploited somehow in electronics or something. I can't think of any way off the top of my head but I'm sure there's a way.

I don't think having a semi-conductor that when tasked with a lot of work stops being a semiconductor would be a great idea in electronics. Hardware crashes would be guaranteed.

 

42 minutes ago, Prysin said:

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG, WE NEED THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!!

Diamond.