New secrets of spider silk: exceptionally high thermal conductivity and its abnormal change under stretching.

Huang, Xiaopeng; Liu, Guoqing; Wang, Xinwei · Adv Mater · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Two new significant discoveries are reported: i) the dragline silk of N. clavipes spider has an exceptionally high thermal conductivity: up to 416 W/m·K that beats most materials; ii) contrary to normal materials, its thermal conductivity increases with strain (19% increase under ∼20% strain). These new findings will revolutionize the design of polymer fibers to increase their thermal conductivity by orders of magnitude.

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