Corn really does have a lot of different uses. We can use it for food, cooking, and even gas for our cars (E-85 ethanol). Now, thanks to the R&D team at NEC, we can use corn to make plastics. We’ve seen this eco-friendly technology used to make disposable tableware, but now we can benefit from bio-degradable cell phones as well. With double the heat conductivity of stainless steel, corn-plastic is poised to replace traditional plastics – and devices can shave precious millimeters by doing away with heatsink materials.
The new corn-plastic’s high heat conductivity is the result of NEC’s researching breakthroughs. They’ve developed a new way to form the plastic using “a cross-linked structure of carbon fiber through use of a unique binder in the polylactic acid (PLA) resin achieves high heat diffusion.” Basically, the scientists at NEC found a way to make all the fibers line up to conduct heat more effectively. High heat conductivity will become more and more important as electronic devices get more powerful. More power means more heat, and you better have a good way to dissipate that heat.
Look for this new plastic (hopefully in more exciting colors than the pictured ‘Institutional Beige’) about a year from now – April 2008.