Two-in-one Researchers have engineered a hybrid perovskite that’s an extreme thermal insulator and is exceptionally stiff. (Courtesy: Jun Liu)"> Two-in-one Researchers have engineered a hybrid perovskite that’s an extreme thermal insulator and is exceptionally stiff. (Courtesy: Jun Liu)

Mechanically rigid materials that are also poor conductors of heat could be employed in a host of applications, from thermal insulation to waste heat recovery in electronics devices. However, combining these two properties in a single structure is not easy. Researchers at North Carolina State University in the US have now succeeded in doing just this thanks to a layered hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite. The material boasts an ultralow thermal conductivity of just 0.04 W/m/K at room temperature and an elastic modulus as high as 7.7 GPa.…