Ambient temperature of materials.

[Kevineo]

Hi everyone, I've got an idea I'm trying to work out but I'm having trouble finding out about a few things. Firstly, what material or metals have the highest ambient temperature? I know uranium is kind of warm but is there any material that is just warm or hot? And how hot can it get? Thanks guys!

 

[f95toli]

All materials will just reach the the same temperature as their environment if you wait long enough UNLESS they are radioactive (like say plutonium).
And yes, some of those materials (some isotopes of uranium, plutonium) will get pretty hot if you collect too much of it in the same place, but you wouldn't' want to be anywhere near it when that happened

There are ways of doing this in a controlled manner and this is sometimes used in e.g. space probes (google nuclear battery, or radioisotope generator) but the power output is low and it is way to dangerous for everyday applications.

 

[Kevineo]

That's really helpful! Thanks f95toll. Ill have to come at it from a different angle :)