Metallic tantalum nitride in the theta phase has an ultra-high thermal conductivity of 1,100 W/mK, making it much more efficient at transporting heat than copper and silver.
Data center servers, cell phones and computer boards all have one thing in common. When devices heat up too much, their performance suffers, and this is becoming less and less acceptable these days. That’s why the copper is used in its manufacture: this metal has a high thermal conductivity, which means that it can transport heat efficiently and dissipate it across its surface.
As A writes, copper is already quite good at what it does. With a thermal conductivity of approximately 401 W/mK at room temperature, it is only slightly behind silver, while being much less expensive to obtain.
Now, in a study last week in Science, aerospace engineers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) discovered a material that leaves both far behind, with almost triple the thermal conductivity.
O metallic tantalum nitride in the theta phase there is a thermal conductivity ultra-high 1.100 W/mKwhich means it is much more efficient at transporting heat than copper and silver.
The conductivity of copper and silver is limited by the strong interactions between free-moving electrons and atomic vibrations called phonons – specific crystalline structures of this metallic compound, which have certain properties, similar to how carbon can exist in the form of soft graphite and also as hard diamond.
Using molecular structure analysis techniques such as synchrotron-based X-ray scattering and ultrafast optical spectroscopy, researchers found unusually weak electron-phonon interactions in this specific configuration of tantalum nitride.
As the researchers explained in , this allows for super-efficient heat flow through the material, with much less resistance, far exceeding what is seen in copper and silver.
As New Atlas highlights, this metallic material could prove to be an alternative to copper – not only for computers and AI hardware, but also for aerospace systems and quantum computers that need to operate constantly at low temperatures.
