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Glass is far inferior to paper, plastic and Styrofoam in terms of insulation. Thermal conductivity in terms of BTU/(feet - hour - degrees F) is 1.82 for glass, 0.09 for paper, 0.06 for Styrofoam. The conductivity of plastics varies depending on the materials: for polypropylene and polycarbonate, the thermal conductivity values are 0.69 and 0.35, respectively.
Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate across materials of low thermal conductivity than across materials of high thermal conductivity. Correspondingly, materials of high thermal conductivity are widely used in heat sink applications and materials of low thermal conductivity are used as thermal insulation.The thermal conductivity of a material may depend on temperature. The reciprocal of thermal conductivity is called thermal resistivity.he reciprocal of thermal conductivity is thermal resistivity, usually expressed in kelvin-meters per watt (KÂ·mÂ·W â1). For a given thickness of a material, that particular construction's thermal resistance and the reciprocal property, thermal conductance, can be calculated.