article-4: A polar-bear-inspired material for heat insulation

Némo Lemaire
11-25-2019
Credit: Polar Bears International
Credit: Polar Bears International

Article (URL) and word count

Vocabulary

Words from the text Synonym/explanation in English Translation in French
Insulation - / The act of covering something to stop heat, sound, or electricity from escaping. Isolation
Frigid polar / Extremely cold. Glacial
Template device / A system that can be copied by other. Modèle
To lock in seal in / To keep inside, without allowing it to escape. Verrouiller
Insulator nonconductor / A material from which heat or electricity cannot escape. Isolant
To scale - / To reproduce something at a greater or lower scale. Produire à une plus grande ou plus petite échelle
Aerogel frozen smoke / A solid material (of extremely low density) produced by removing the liquid component from a conventional gel. aérogel
Analogous akin / That have similar features. Analogue
Hollow empty / An empty space inside something. Creux
Core interior / The center of something Noyau
Coats fur / The hair that cover an animal’s body. Pelage
Outstanding incredible / Excellent Exceptionnel
To emulate to imitate / To imitate something in order to mimic its properties. Imiter
Strand of hair Thread of hair / A single piece of hair. Mèche de cheveux
To wind to coil / To twist something around something else. Enrouler
Heat flow thermal flux / Thermic energy (heat) that flows trough one’s body, allowing its temperature to stay constant (in the case of homeotherms organisms). Flux thermique
Hardly rarely / Nearly never. Rarement
Relevant appropriate / Appropriate with the current thematic, goal. Pertinent

Analysis table

Researchers University of Science and Technology of China (USTC); they range from chemistry professor to mechanical engineering professor: Hui-Juan Zhan, Kai-Jin Wu, Ya-Lin Hu, Jian-Wei Liu, Han Li, Xu Guo, Jie Xu, Yuan Yang, Zhi-Long Yu, Huai-Ling Gao, Xi-Sheng Luo, Jia-Fu Chen, Yong Ni, Shu-Hong Yu.
Published in? Chem; under the name:“Biomimetic Carbon Tube Aerogel Enables Super-Elasticity and Thermal Insulation” (06/06/2019)
General topic? The creation of heat insulator materials inspired by polar bear fur.
Procedure/what was examined? 1) Manufacture of millions of hollowed-out carbon tubes (each one of them equivalent to a single strand of polar bear’s hair). 2) Coiling them together inside a spagethi-like aerogel block.
Conclusions/discovery? The synthetics hollowed carbons tubes are lighter and more resistant to heat flow than other aerogel or insulation components. They are also hardly affected by water and, in comparison with the genuine polar bear’s hair, are stretchier.
Remaining questions? How can we bypass the size limitations of the carbon-tube materials in order to mass product them?

Citation

For attribution, please cite this work as

Lemaire (2019, Nov. 25). Biomimicry: article-4: A polar-bear-inspired material for heat insulation. Retrieved from https://nemlemaire.github.io/nemo-lemaire-blog/posts/2019-11-25-article-4/

BibTeX citation

@misc{lemaire2019article-4:,
  author = {Lemaire, Némo},
  title = {Biomimicry: article-4: A polar-bear-inspired material for heat insulation},
  url = {https://nemlemaire.github.io/nemo-lemaire-blog/posts/2019-11-25-article-4/},
  year = {2019}
}