Graphene Anticipated to Cool Electronics in the Future

How many of you own a PC laptop that overheats onto your lap? Have you actually been burned by one before? We have all been there, so graphene is, once again, here to save the day. Maybe.

PC cooling, although minimal on the scale of what graphene has done and is doing for our world, is one of our favorite improvements to discuss and graphene is just the material to do it. As we all know, graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and has the highest conductivity properties of any material we know in such a small space; literally an atom thick! So, what better material to reduce the heat the exudes from PCs that tend to overheat?

According to the PC Games Network, back in 2004 Scientists at the University of Manchester worked on isolating graphene for the purpose of cooling normally aluminum and copper solutions. The first of the products to receive the atom-thick treatment was the T-Force Cardea Zero M.2 SSD (solid-state storage device) that, accented along with a copper foil design, applied graphene to the “NAND and control modules, essentially a fancy sticker made with incredibly thin layers of graphene, along with copper fil and insulation. The graphene-copper foil composite adds only 0.185mm extra thickness to an SSD, and allows for improved heat dissipation away from the sizzling components.” Basically, in laments terms, the material kept from the temperatures from 80 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees Celsius over long periods of time. But, even this combination may not be “enough to completely prevent thermal throttling under particularly stressful loads.”

Although the decrease in degrees is quite impressive, and would the gaming system for a long period of time, there are plans to test the graphene along with copper film SSD rather than the thermally unaided one used in the experiment. “At least then we would have direct numbers relating to thermal properties of graphene composites over regular copper film.” Based on the results of the pending test utilizing this material specifically, graphene could revolutionize the entire PC building industry with improve passive coolers and cold plate designs thanks to the material’s impressive properties.

In another part of the world, at the Chalmers University of Technology, researchers have worked on phasing copper out completely using components made of silicon. However, there is still much to be done as the method has not completely rid the devices of the heat and when more layers of graphene are introduced, the problem of heat seems to worsen. According to phys.org, Dr. Liu on the team stated “Increased thermal capacity could lead to several new applications for graphene. One example is the integration of graphene-based film into microelectronic devices and systems, such as highly efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), layers and radio frequency components for cooling purposes. Graphene=based film could pave the way for faster, smaller, more energy efficient, sustainable high-power electronics.”

While these research teams are still at work to find a solution to PC cooling permanently, it seems as though silicon might be the answer to their problem using the helpful effects of graphene. Regardless of what the solution ends up being, we are excited to see what graphene will bring electronics in the future.