NC STATE'S NEW THIN FILM IS 10,000X STIFFER THAN SILICONE, YET INSULATES 5X BETTER

Summary from the TLDR Hardware newsletter

Material science has long treated stiffness and heat insulation as a trade-off: stiff materials like metal conduct heat fast, while soft ones like rubber trap it. NC State researchers broke that link with a non-porous thin film built from 2D hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites, arranging alternating organic and inorganic layers into precise crystalline structures and swapping standard carbon chains for custom-tailored benzene rings to trap heat vibrations without sacrificing structural rigidity.