Material scientists create a new compound that has a thermal resistance up to 72% lower than some of the best liquid metals
If there's one topic that's guaranteed to cause a heated discussion amongst PC enthusiasts, it's thermal paste. From how much to use, to what shape you apply, everyone has their own opinion on what's right and wrong. A team of material engineers in Texas reckon they have the best answer as to what paste is best, though, and it's a new liquid metal colloid.
Your average thermal paste is a colloid—a liquid with solid particles in suspension—with tiny grains of aluminium oxide and/or zinc oxide being mixed into silicone. It's perfectly decent stuff and unless you're really into overclocking, you don't need anything else. However, in recent years, so-called liquid metal has become the favoured option for high-end cooling.
As the name suggests, the material is a metal alloy, typically a eutectic mixture of gallium, indium, and tin (GaInSn, often sold under the brand name Galinstan). Some liquid metal compounds are even colloids, with microscopic copper grains added for that extra oomph, in terms of ultra-low thermal resistance.
However, a team of material scientists and engineers at the University of Texas has developed a new compound to beat them all (via Tom's Hardware). This liquid metal colloid is a mixture of the same GaInSn alloy (though other gallium alloys work too) and aluminium nitride particles.
But rather than just throwing them all in a tub and stirring furiously, the team used a more rigorous process. The supplementary data sheet for the research paper makes the process sound pretty darn cool.
«The colloidal [liquid metals, LMs] in this study were synthesized via a mechanochemical approach, in which substantial force propelled the LM to infiltrate the crystal lattice of the ceramic particle, establishing efficient LM-solid interactions by coordinating the unoccupied orbit of metal atoms in the LM with the lone pair electrons of nitrogen atoms in the AlN [aluminium nitride].»
The upshot of this «substantial force» is that the new thermal compound has a much
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