Sapphire: A Liquid That Won't Get Things Wet

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 14, 2004 @05:42AM from the it-tastes-different-though dept.

eaglebtc writes "Tuesday on Good Morning America, a representative from Tyco Fire & Security demonstrated an amazing new substance called Sapphire: a water-like fluid that does not get things wet. He filled a small fish tank with Sapphire and submerged a book, a laptop, and a flat panel TV. Both electronics were turned on when submerged; all three items came out completely unharmed. Click here for a slideshow of the demonstration. The official name for Sapphire is actually Novec 1230. Read about it here (PDF). Tyco sees practical applications of Sapphire in fire extinguisher systems for museums and libraries. By the same token of practicality, regular readers of Slashdot probably have something else in mind: total-immersion watercooling. Just think of the possibilities!"

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Uh.. by hookedup · 2004-04-14 05:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why give a new substance the name of an older substance?
Re:"Water"-cooling by jspoon · 2004-04-14 05:58 · Score: 5, Insightful

If they're using it to put out fires, it's a safe bet that it can handle your Athlon.
Not the same thing. You aren't trying to put out fires by cooling them, you're depriving them of oxygen. It could be that it's just as good at that application in gaseous state as when a liquid. In processor's, on the other hand, you want something to conduct away the heat from the processor. Gasses are usually bad heat absorbers.
I do like what was said below about using the state change to cool, pumping the gaseous Sapphire away and re-condensing it. It would be more complicated than just putting your computer in a fish tank full of the stuff and letting convection do the rest (circulate the liquid keeping the coolest of it at the bottom), though.