The heat dissipation of the new thermal conductive material is increased by 72%, and the thermal resistance is reduced by an order of magnitude.

     Electronic systems and devices operating at high power levels require complex cooling solutions. Although current materials with high thermal conductivity promise excellent heat transfer across nanoscale and micron interfaces under ideal conditions, their performance in complex thermal interfaces for practical applications is often several orders of magnitude lower than theoretical values.

     Recently, a research team at the University of Texas has developed a new thermal interface material (TIM), which introduces a liquid metal alloy Galinstan and ceramic aluminum nitride to form a mechanochemically mediated colloidal liquid metal, significantly improving the heat conductivity of practical applications.

     According to reports, the thermal resistance of TIM in the actual thermal interface is only 0.42 to 0.86 mm 2 KW−1, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the best commercial liquid metal conductors, and the heat dissipation capacity is 56 to 72% higher. According to tests, when combined with microchannel cooling technology, the use of this material only needs 16 square centimeters of area to emit up to 2760W of heat.

     TIM achieves such high heat dissipation efficiency mainly due to mechanochemistry, which allows liquid metal and ceramic components to be mixed in a very controlled manner, forming gradient interfaces through which heat can flow more easily, thus narrowing the gap between the theoretical heat transfer limits of these materials and the actual heat transfer limits of the product.

     In addition, the researchers claim that higher thermal conductivity can reduce the energy required to run the cooling pumps and fans by up to 65 percent. Taking energy-intensive data centers as an example, where cooling systems account for about 40% of total energy consumption, or about 8 twh per year, the researchers estimate that adopting TIM could reduce industry-wide cooling energy demand by 13%, thereby reducing overall data center energy consumption by at least 5%, which would significantly reduce operating costs and reduce carbon emissions.