Thermal properties as a research area focuses on the quantitative characterization, prediction, and control of how materials and systems store, conduct, and exchange heat. It encompasses investigation of thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, thermal expansion, and related transport coefficients across temperature, pressure, and phase regimes. Research typically integrates experimental calorimetry and thermal analysis, steady-state and transient heat-flow methods, and atomistic or continuum simulations to elucidate phonon, electron, and radiative contributions. This domain underpins advances in thermal management, energy conversion, high-temperature materials, cryogenics, and micro/nanoscale heat transfer, often coupling with mechanical, electrical, and structural behavior.
When astronauts travel deeper into space, every drop of fuel becomes critical, and keeping those fuels stable for months or even years is one of the biggest engineering challenges facing future missions. Now, University of ...
Space Exploration
Jul 31, 2026
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24
Efficient heat management in solids is key to advancing the next generation of electronics. However, wave-like heat movement—known as phonon focusing—had been observed only at extremely low, or cryogenic, temperatures, limiting ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 23, 2026
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112
QUT researchers have overcome a challenge that has limited next-generation energy-harvesting materials for more than two decades, opening the door to more powerful wearable electronics and new ways of turning wasted heat ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 20, 2026
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18
Researchers from Skoltech, in collaboration with the Harbin Institute of Technology and Jiangsu University (China), have published a study presenting the first empirical model to explain and predict the sensing behavior of ...
Nanophysics
Jul 20, 2026
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6
Researchers have designed and built the first 3D device that can make objects invisible to heat, an advance that could transform how we protect sensitive electronics, manage heat in microchips and shield equipment from thermal ...
General Physics
Jul 13, 2026
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518
Normally, a material absorbs and emits heat in a linked way: A surface that absorbs heat well at a certain wavelength and direction will also emit heat in the same way. This fundamental relationship, known as reciprocity, ...
General Physics
Jul 7, 2026
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193
As the UK prepares for the third heat wave of 2026, most people will be hoping to keep cool at home. Building regulations to protect homes from overheating were introduced in 2022. These require all new homes to be checked ...
Environment
Jul 6, 2026
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Almost every material expands when heated. Well-known examples include railroad tracks and concrete roadways, which feature visible expansion gaps to accommodate this effect. However, thermal expansion poses a far more acute ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 26, 2026
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47
Gravity, the force that attracts objects toward each other, is currently framed by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This framework describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime, the invisible four-dimensional ...
Magnetic quantum oscillations have been unexpectedly observed in insulators, where freely moving charge carriers are not expected to exist. A joint study by researchers from Tokyo University of Science, The University of ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 23, 2026
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