Nanowerk August 17, 2019
A team of researchers in the US (Stanford University, NIST) demonstrated unusually high thermal isolation across ultrathin heterostructures, achieved by layering atomically thin 2D materials. They realized artificial stacks of monolayer graphene, MoS2, and WSe2 with thermal resistance greater than 100 times thicker SiO2 and effective thermal conductivity lower than air at room temperature. Ultrahigh thermal isolation was achieved through the mismatch in mass density and phonon density of states between the 2D layers. These thermal metamaterials are an example in the emerging field of phononics and could find applications where ultrathin thermal insulation is desired, in thermal energy harvesting, or for routing heat in ultracompact geometries…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
This greatly magnified image shows four layers of atomically thin materials that form a heat-shield just two to three nanometers thick, or roughly 50,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper. Credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology