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LEGO® Block Structures as a Sub-Kelvin Thermal Insulator

We report measurements of the thermal conductance of a structure made from commercial Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) modules, known as LEGO® blocks, in the temperature range from 70 mK to 1.8 K. A power law for the sample’s thermal conductivity κ = (8.7 ± 0.3) × 10(−5) T (1.75±0.02) WK(−1) m(...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chawner, J. M. A., Jones, A. T., Noble, M. T., Pickett, G. R., Tsepelin, V., Zmeev, D. E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6927980/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31873080
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55616-7
Descripción
Sumario:We report measurements of the thermal conductance of a structure made from commercial Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) modules, known as LEGO® blocks, in the temperature range from 70 mK to 1.8 K. A power law for the sample’s thermal conductivity κ = (8.7 ± 0.3) × 10(−5) T (1.75±0.02) WK(−1) m(−1) was determined. We conclude that this ABS/void compound material provides better thermal isolation than well-known bulk insulator materials in the explored temperature range, whilst maintaining solid support. LEGO blocks represent a cheap and superlative alternative to materials such as Macor or Vespel. In our setup, <400 nW of power can heat an experimental area of 5 cm(2) to over 1 K, without any significant change to the base temperature of the dilution refrigerator. This work suggests that custom-built modular materials with even better thermal performance could be readily and cheaply produced by 3D printing.