So I have been looking into heat dissipation and aside from silver, I have narrowed it down to aluminum and copper heat tape.

 

I have heard that copper heat tape is preferred for heat dissipation but it has a lower specific heat than aluminum. My initial theory was that the higher the specific heat, the faster rate of dissipation. Am I missing something? Should I continue with using copper tape for heat dissipation.

 

 

Any to all advice is greatly appreciated, thank you!

Aluminium has a higher specific capacity for a given mass than copper, but copper has a higher specific heat capacity for a given volume, by virtue of its higher density; this is what matters here. When you are comparing two pieces of tape, they are going to have the same thickness, width and length.... which makes the copper tape have a higher total specific heat capacity when comparing like-for-like volumes.

Edited June 22, 201510 yr by StringJunky

Aluminium has a higher specific capacity for a given mass than copper, but copper has a higher specific heat capacity for a given volume, by virtue of its higher density; this is what matters here. When you are comparing two pieces of tape, they are going to have the same thickness, width and length.... which makes the copper tape have a higher total specific heat capacity when comparing like-for-like volumes.

That is a brilliant, well thought out answer. Thank you so much!