Why cant I find a chart of materials where each point is a material, and the y axis is thermal conductivity and the x-axis is specific heat capacity

@freemo The style of chart you're looking for is an Ashby chart. With some google-foo, the closest flavor of Ashby chart to what you want I could find publicly available is this:

@freemo The relation between diffusivity (a) and specific heat (Cp) is:
a = k / (rho * Cp)
where k is conductivity, rho is density. So the X axis in this chart is inversely proportional to Cp, but also proportional to k (the y-axis!). The 45 degree dashed lines in the chart are isometric to volumetric specific heat.

@GregWilson

This actually answers what I suspected and wanted to answer. I was wondering if the chart would be nice and well ordered (and if so in what way) or just a random jumble with no real relationship... IT is interesting to see that like I suspected there is indeed a close correlation/pattern relating the two across materials.

I was also thinking how some material with really high specific heat capacity and high conductivity would be a very special thing to have, since you can store a lot of energy in it and get that energy out quickly, which in term of energy dynamics is a bit of a holy grail (like in electronics you tend to get one or the other and not both)

@freemo Not too many free lunches in nature. From this chart, the only way to get off the line common to all materials is structural - making a foam out of it. Not really an analog that can push you in the opposite direction, above the line.

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@GregWilson The problem is foams have low conductivity but im imagining some super material with higher-than normal conductivity. I cant think of any sort of structure that would be the conceptual dual of a foam structure. Maybe some sort of degenerate matter like neutronium or something?

@GregWilson

Actually now my brain is spinning... it would be super cool where neutronium/neutron star core material, would fall on a chart like this.

Sadly i have yet to find any of that on ebay, but ill keep it on my watchlist ;0

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