New solution to keep your electronics cooler with graphene film.

Recent studies show that graphene-based film can be an efficient method to cool electronics. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology used thermal conductivity capacity to create a film and this capacity was four times that of copper. This graphene film is attachable to electronic components that are made of silicon. As a result it improves the film’s performance when compared to typical characteristics of grapheme that emerged in previous alike experiments.

Due to the high demand for continuous improvement of functionality, it is common for electronic devices to easily be overheated. But, it is essential for the device to be adjusted to adapt to overheating when prolonging electronic lifespan. This could also, result in considerable save in energy usage.

Researchers at this university discovered few years ago that grapheme can hold a cooling effect on silicon-based electronics, prompting new studies on the cooling of silicon-based electronics that incorporate graphene.

Johan Liu, a professor at the university shares that the methods that have been in the working all this while have only generated questions for the researchers. He added that it became unavoidable that those methods cannot assist in eliminating great levels of heat from electronic devices. This is because they have consisted only of a few layers of thermal conductive atoms.

Prof. Liu says that adding more layers of graphene resulted in the issue of adhesiveness. When more layers of graphene were added, the grapheme would not stick to the surface; since the adhesion is held together only by weak Van Der Waals bonds.

This led them to create strong covalent bonds; which is an electronic component made of silicon, between the graphene film and the surface. They further tested several additives, with an addition of (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) molecules holding the most effective solution. When heated, they were put through hydrolysis to create silane bonds between the electronic component and the graphene.

The team recorded how functionalization, with the help of silane coupling,g actually doubles thermal conductivity of the graphene. They have now proved that the in-plane thermal conductivity of the graphene-based film, with 20 micrometer thickness, can attain a thermal conductivity of 1600 W/mK, four times the value of what copper can do.

The Professor concludes by saying that several new applications for graphene is a consequence of increased thermal capacity. Addition of graphene-based film into microelectronic devices and systems like, highly efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), lasers and radio frequency components for cooling purposes; is one the examples of it. Graphene-based film could someday lead to electronics that are faster, smaller, more energy efficient, and has a higher sustainable power.