Physicists Have Identified a Metal That Conducts Electricity But Not Heat (2017)

Re:Physicists Have Identified a Metal That Conducts Electric... by perlgeek on Sunday December 01, 2019 @02:14PM (#21677230)

> The metal, found in 2017, contradicts something called the Wiedemann-Franz Law, which basically states that good conductors of electricity will also be proportionally good conductors of heat, which is why things like motors and appliances get so hot when you use them regularly.

Erm, no. That's not how it works.

Things become hot due to electrical and mechanical losses; if you run them long enough, the heat moves out no matter how good or bad of a heat conductor you use.

In fact, you usually want a not-too-bad heat conductor, to avoid overheating the active components.

That said, there are still good use cases for such a material, for example when conducting electricity through a heat shield (furnace or freezer).

Do I want to continue reading, after the second paragraph contains such confusing statements?

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Re:Physicists Have Identified a Metal That Conducts Electric... by dreamcompiler on Sunday December 01, 2019 @03:16PM (#21677548)

Came here to post this. Motors and appliances heat up because of friction and because they are less-than-perfect conductors of electricity. Their good heat conductivity is why they don't get even hotter.

There's more:

"The electrons were moving in unison with each other, much like a fluid, instead of as individual particles like in normal metals,"

Which describes a superconductor, but that word never appears in the writeup.

Subject is interesting but this article is clearly written by someone not very familiar with the science.

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