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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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2019-12, Vol.9 (1), p.19642-4, Article 19642
Main Authors: Chawner, J. M. A., Jones, A. T., Noble, M. T., Pickett, G. R., Tsepelin, V., Zmeev, D. E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3-D printers
639/766/25
639/766/930
Acrylonitrile
Composite materials
Conductance
Conductivity
Experiments
Heat conductivity
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Resistance thermometers
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Styrene
Thermal conductivity
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Summary: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,
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-55616-7