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Pipe’s research featured on phys.org and Engadget

08/03/2017

High thermal conductivity in polyelectrolyte thin films via controlled ionization. Credit: Science Advances (2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700342

Associate Professor Kevin Pipe and a team of U-M researchers, including mechanical engineering graduate researcher Chen Li and materials science and engineering graduate student Apoorv Shanker, have found a way to change plastic’s molecular structure, making it as thermally conductive as glass. Their research was recently featured in articles on phys.org and Engadget.

“Researchers have long studied ways to modify the molecular structure of polymers to engineer their mechanical, optical or electronic properties, but very few studies have examined molecular design approaches to engineer their thermal properties,” said Pipe. “While heat flow in materials is often a complex process, even small improvements in the thermal conductivities of polymers can have a large technological impact.”

Read the phys.org article

Read the Engadget article

Faculty featured in this story