1. LEGO® Block Structures as a Sub-Kelvin Thermal Insulator
- Author
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J. M. A. Chawner, M. T. Noble, A. T. Jones, George R. Pickett, Viktor Tsepelin, and D. E. Zmeev
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Materials science ,lcsh:Medicine ,Insulator (electricity) ,Article ,Techniques and instrumentation ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Thermal conductivity ,Thermal insulation ,Dilution refrigerator ,Composite material ,lcsh:Science ,Multidisciplinary ,Vespel ,Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene ,business.industry ,lcsh:R ,Atmospheric temperature range ,Applied physics ,030104 developmental biology ,chemistry ,lcsh:Q ,business ,Macor ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
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) × 10−5T 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, 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.
- Published
- 2019