Heat Transfer And Bond Strength Of Materials Linked

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute believe that the speed at which heat moves between two materials that touch one another indicates the strength of the bond between them. Moreover, they believe that flow of heat from one material to the other - in their case, between one solid and one liquid - can be altered by painting a thin atomic layer between the materials. That is, when the interface changes, the interaction between the materials changes. The study, entitled: "How wetting and adhesion affect thermal conductance of a range of hydrophobic to hydrophilic aqueous solutions," was published by Physical Review Letters 13 April 2009.