Carbon Nanotubes May Make The Ultimate Heat Sink

SEWilco writes: "Looking for something to make a really good heatsink? This EurekAlert summary points out that U of Penn researchers have discovered that carbon nanotubes carry heat quickly, and unexpectedly bundles of them also do this. It's due to how the heat is carried, not due to the tremendous surface area." Interestingly, according this summary, "[h]eat energy in nanotubes is carried by sound waves; in materials that are optimal conductors of heat, these waves move very rapidly in an essentially one-dimensional direction. Drs. Fischer and Johnson found that sound waves bearing thermal energy travel straight down individual carbon nanotubes at roughly 10,000 meters per second, behavior consistent with superior thermal conductivity." But what would all the overclocking sites do if the ultimate heatsink was shapeless and grey?!

Comments

Re:hold on, why have a heatsink at all!

[_xeno_]

This would provide far superior heat disipation, as it would go from source to void.

WHAT are you planning to do with the heat? Heat sinks don't destroy heat, they move it. (Actually, NOTHING destroys heat. Part of that conservation of energy thing.) For the big heat sink that sits on my Athlon, they move the heat from the surface of the chip to the air in the heat sink. Little fan on top moves air out of the heat sink and into the rest of the case, where (hopefully) the other fans blow it into the room, allowing new colder air to be sucked in. But the heat's still going somewhere.

From reading the article, you're (sorta) right that you could use these to in essence suck the heat out of a component, but you'd still need a heat sink to help disipate the heat. Look at the back of a fridge if you can - if you can find an airconditioner you can see into, try that instead. Look for the tubing wrapping around - that's basically a heat sink. Refridgeration works by compressing air so that the heat in it becomes "denser" if you will, making it hotter. Heat is then disipated elsewhere, and then the air is decompressed, and it's cooler than it was before (heat was lost).

Although the article suggests they could be used to cool parts otherwise too hot, it leaves out the part explaining what they end up doing with the heat. (They probably conduct it somewhere else and let it disipate there.)

You'd still need something to disipate the heat - they don't destroy heat. They're almost like fiber optics - they move energy down the fiber. Heat sinks help disipate heat - this could make them more efficient in doing so.

Could make for more efficient heat sinks

[toybuilder]

The problem with most heatsinks today is that the "hotspot" in the center of the chip, and thus the center of the heat-sink. Basically, the heat tends to concentrate in the center, and cools off the farther it is from the heat source. You end up with a thermal gradient over a large heat sink. (Remember college physics and doing equilibria problems? Ugh.) At some point, the outlying parts of the heatsink contributes little to the overall cooling of the core. If the nanotubes make good thermal "superconductor", it makes it possible to make larger heat sinks with better heat distribution and dissipation. That would be A Good Thing. Now, if they can only make cooler units that run silently!

Heat Sinks?

[Vuarnet]

Hmm...

Forget about overclocking the Pentium IV... you know what we could do with this kind of technology and the proper funding?

Battlemechs! Marauders that won't overheat in the middle of a fight! Jenners with dual PPCs!