Modern research has found no simple, inexpensive way to alter a material’s thermal conductivity at room temperature. Now, using only a 9-volt battery at room temperature, a team led by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jon Ihlefeld has altered the thermal conductivity of the widely used material PZT (lead zirconate titanate) by as much as 11 percent at subsecond time scales.The work, published last month in Nano Letters, was co-authored by Sandia researchers David A. Scrymgeour, Joseph R. Michael, Bonnie B. McKenzie and Douglas L. Medlin; Brian M. Foley and Patrick E. Hopkins from ...