Wednesday, May 4th 2005
NanoCoolers puts liquid metal in your PC
Most of you may not have heard of NanoCoolers yet. This company is a relatively young Startup(May 2002) who has been working on improving cooling technologies behind closed doors for quite some time.
Now the first details on their cool new products emerge:
Now the first details on their cool new products emerge:
The liquid metal has significant advantages over other single phase liquid solutions. The thermal and physical properties of the material give it the ability to cool extremely high heat fluxes. With its very low vapor pressure, the boiling point of the material is in excess of 2000°C. This provides the capability to cool extremely high power densities without the liquid-metal changing phase, removing power density as the limiting factor in cooling performance. The liquid metal is non-flammable, non-toxic and environmentally friendly. As a metal, the liquid is both highly thermally conductive and highly electrically conductive. The thermal conductivity makes it ideal for heat removal and dissipation. The electrical conductivity enables the use of electromagnetic pumps to propel the liquid.
86 Comments on NanoCoolers puts liquid metal in your PC
I heard that the liquid metal will break down whatever it is held in rather quickly though.
I think these coolers might be using something far less complicated, something like mercury perhaps?
Anyway, I guess these new coolers would use very small amounts of any metal, and I guess will be very expensive and to be used only by enthusiasts, willing to pay the premium for metal cooling.
I cannot think of any other liquid metal to use :confused:
"boiling point of the material is in excess of 2000°C"
Some new metal salvaged from the wreakage of UFO's at area 51 and our recent trips to mars have paid off. Anyone know what it is?
If they can find a way to actually make peltiers both energy efficient and feasable (most peltier cooling setups require an extraordinary amount of effort to cool the hot side) then I think that it would pay for itself.
www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7348
I suspect their using an alloy of gallium. 85% Gallium plus 15% tin reduces the melting point to around 20 degrees celcius (from 30 degrees celcius for gallium.). 95% gallium,5% zinc has a melting point of 25 degrees. May be there are other additives I haven't thought of.
It's likely to be expensive with gallium around $220 US dollar/100grams (correct me if I'm wrong). I am also aware of research into gallium as a coolant.
Glenn (trust me I'm wearing a white dust coat).
Read the posted article the metals not suppost to melt its a more heat absorbent metal... And I quote: "Unlike water, the metal boils at 2000°C, which means it can absorb more heat without changing phase and becoming a troublesome gas.". Last time I checked AMD and Intel both said that their their CPUS would go after 150-180°C. If you have proof that says your CPU hits higher then maybe I will retract my coment.
Have you ever heard of Mercury? it's a liquid metal at room temperature, it's what's inside those old glass things your mom used to put in your mouth (and in other places... :p ) to meassure your temperature. Does the word thermometer ring a bell?
Now, Gallium on the other hand melts at aprox. 29.76°C, well under the idle temp of that thing called CPU inside your PC, but of course you've never heard of gallium before, have you? :confused:
Now, boiling, put in layman terms, means turning any material into gasseus state, (meaning it is not liquid or solid anymore) so, as you kindly pointed out before:
"Unlike water, the metal boils at 2000°C, which means it can absorb more heat without changing phase and becoming a troublesome gas."
Let me translate that last paragraph to you, this means that this specific liquid metal (or alloy) won't turn into gasseus state unless it hits 2000°C, which is about 20 times over the boiling point of water (aprox 100°C depending on the altitude), did you get that, sport?
whatever it tries to cool it will break down sooner than an overclocked p4 aircooled.i think that watercooled now its the perfect sollusion...even the watercolled processors and graphic cards have some problems...imagine the nanocooled...anyway i am happy with my watercooled system cya