Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery that challenges a 200-year-old law of physics governing heat diffusion in solid materials. Known as Fourier’s law, this principle describes the transfer of heat through solid materials based on temperature difference and surface area. However, recent research on the nanoscale has shown that Fourier’s law does not accurately predict heat diffusion in these materials.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, led by polymer physicist Kaikai Zheng, investigated whether there might be exceptions to Fourier’s law at the macroscale, particularly in translucent materials such as polymers and inorganic glasses. These materials allow some wavelengths of light to pass through, and the researchers hypothesized that this translucence might also enable heat energy to travel through the materials in the form of thermal radiation.
Senior author Steve Granick, a materials scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explained that the research stemmed from a simple question: ‘What if heat could be transmitted through solids by another pathway, not just the one that people had assumed?’
This discovery has significant implications for our understanding of heat diffusion in solid materials and could pave the way for new advancements in thermal conductivity research. The findings challenge long-held assumptions about the behavior of heat in materials and open up new possibilities for harnessing thermal energy in innovative ways.
