New Cooling Meta ?

Krik00 · October 19, 2016

Today on the chemistry, I was kinda daydreaming. We were talking about alkali metals. When I woke up, teacher was saying how sodium is used to cool nuclear reactors. This got me thinking; Would it actually be possible and efficient to sodium-cool the CPU in some crazy way?

Share your thoughts.

PS. Yes, I have bad grades in chemistry

sgloux3470 · October 19, 2016

The reason liquid metal works in cooling a nuclear reactor is because the reactor itself is at a temperature much much higher than the liquid metal.

I don't think that is really the case for your average CPU.

Personally I really want this CPU cooler at some point.

http://gadgetzz.com/2014/02/04/captherms-mp1120-multiphasic-cpu-cooler/

But it has been years and it still hasn't made it to market yet.

Krik00 · October 19, 2016

1 minute ago, sgloux3470 said:

The reason liquid metal works in cooling a nuclear reactor is because the reactor itself is at a temperature much much higher than the liquid metal.

I don't think that is really the case for your average CPU.

Yes, that makes sense. I don't really know how hot can CPU get with hardcore overclock, I only know that melting point of sodium is 97C.

But, do you think it would be theoretically possible ?

Sakkura · October 19, 2016

Nah, sodium is a very bad idea for CPU cooling. It's potentially useful for nuclear power plants because there's a big gap between the melting point (98 degrees C) and boiling point (882 degrees C), where water has a much narrower range (0-100C). Plus sodium doesn't really absorb or moderate neutrons, so it doesn't have complicated effects on the nuclear reactions the way water does.

CPUs should generally be kept below 98 degrees C, where the sodium coolant would be solid. And then it's just a terrible coolant. Plus its extreme reactivity would require very expensive and impractical safety measures. Forget about Samsung's Note 7 fires, this would be way more hazardous.

Krik00 · October 19, 2016

1 minute ago, Sakkura said:

Nah, sodium is a very bad idea for CPU cooling. It's potentially useful for nuclear power plants because there's a big gap between the melting point (98 degrees C) and boiling point (882 degrees C), where water has a much narrower range (0-100C). Plus sodium doesn't really absorb or moderate neutrons, so it doesn't have complicated effects on the nuclear reactions the way water does.

CPUs should generally be kept below 98 degrees C, where the sodium coolant would be solid. And then it's just a terrible coolant. Plus its extreme reactivity would require very expensive and impractical safety measures. Forget about Samsung's Note 7 fires, this would be way more hazardous.

Ummm... I see. Yes, I know about its reactivity with water and oxygen, so that is a neat risk Too bad it won't work, it would be interesting to see someone do it. Thanks for opinions.