Is copper as good as aluminum foil in heat transfer?

Question

what would be the difference in the 2 when heated

Answer 1

When both are receiving the same amount of heat and both are the same thickness and area, the Copper, having a lower Specific Heat Capacity will heat up more than twice as fast as the Aluminium and, will cool down quicker at the same rate.

(Looking at other answers, let's put this in context.
Aluminium has a Specific Heat of 0.9 J/g/°C and Copper is 0.386 /g/°C. If both are heated to the same temperature, the Al will take longer to get there (0.9 J/g/°C) than the Cu (0.386/g/°C) and therefore, the Cu will cool down quicker. making Copper the quicker and better picker-upper of heat.

Answer 2

Copper Heat Transfer

Answer 3

What Hgldr says above is correct, ie basically copper is about twice as good as aluminum at conducting heat, I just want to mention re what he said about "holding the heat", you gotta remember that copper is more than twice as dense as aluminum - in other words, a pound of aluminum is a lot larger volume than a pound of copper.

But copper is still the queen of heatsink materials within a hundred degrees or so of room temp (diamond is the king).

Answer 4

Copper is a slightly better conductor then aluminum. The copper would heat up and transfer heat a little better then the aluminum.

Answer 5

If I were to build a hot air engine, I would want copper for the hot side an Aluminum for the cold side.

Answer 6

Copper is better,but it retains heat longer and more evenly,where as Aluminum,heats faster and cools faster.

Answer 7

1. No heat is lost to the surroundings means that all of the heat produced from the reaction is used to raise the solution temperature. So, if you calculate the energy needed to raise the solution temperature you also get the the energy produced from the reaction 2. The solutes occupies no volume, means that there is no change of volume after the reaction. That means that the volume will still be 100 mL even after the reaction 3. The solution has the same specific heat capacity as water, means that you could use water heat capacity in your formula to get the energy needed to raise the solution temperature. if you understand this, then you could easily solve all the question.

Answer 8

very small difference both tranmit heat eqully as well copper of course has been around longer

Answer 9

I cant say but I do know copper transfers heat equally throughout its surface area. thats why you see alot of pans or pots that have copper bottoms

Answer 10

The thermal resistance of Cu is 0.101 C/W-inch. The thermal resistnace of Al is 0.164C/W-inch, about 63% worse. Some alloys of Al are worse like say, 6061 Al which is 0.23C/W.

aluminum really holds heat though: 407Joules/lb/C compared to copper: 172J/lb/C.