3 ms·
"Aluminum is not a great conductor" Compared to what? Graphene?
by gnode 9y ago
"Aluminum is not a great conductor" Compared to what? Graphene?
- papercrane 9y agoGold, copper, silver & graphene.
- logfromblammo 9y agoThis threw me as well. Of the pure metals, the holy trinity for conductivity is silver, copper, and gold, with aluminum sliding in at 4th place. Due to cost considerations, copper and aluminum are the most widely used for conducting electricity, with aluminum about half as conductive as copper (therefore requiring different building code guidelines). But I'm not sure that translates to aluminized-mylar. Sometimes conductors get weird in thin films or at material boundaries. Organic compounds are great conductors whenever you can find a chain of delocalized p-orbitals, such as in graphene or cis-polyacetylene or polyaniline or polythiophene. PEDOT/PSS is a polymer related to polythiophene that is used in anti-static bags, transparent electrode, electrochromic films, capacitor cathodes, and it is printable. Polyaniline is typically used in batteries and supercaps. So an aluminized-mylar chip bag is probably not a great conductor in comparison to one made from PEDOT/PSS backed with PET. And obviously, a chip bag made from graphene-on-copper-foil would be the best, if anyone could afford to buy a $1000 snack.
- londons_explore 9y agoIf you look at an aluminium mylar bag under a microscope you'll see that the coverage of aluminium is actually rather low, and it's more flakes of aluminium on the surface which don't connect with each other in places. It's that lack of connection which makes it a lousy shield.