Why not use diamond dust for the ultimate heat conductivity?

[KDOG]

Over on another forum (candlepowerforums.com) about high end flashlights, there is a discussion about how to properly electrically isolate the positve slug area of the new insanely bright Seoul P4 LED emitters (3-4 times brighter on the same current as the previous Luxeon emitters - trust me). One member suggested mixing some fine micron diamond dust with the thermal epoxy to ensure the base of the emitter never can actually touch the aluminum heatsink. Another member posted a quote from Wikipedia that seem to confirm that it would actually probably work quite well....

diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any known solid at room temperature: 2000?2500 W·m/m2·K (200?250 W·mm/cm2·K)[2], five times more than copper.

Now of course this is a computer forum so my suggestion is what if us crazy overclockin' fools mixed this diamond dust - only like $9 from certain places - with thermal goop for some seriously effective heat transfer? Neat huh?

 

[Jiggz]

The very reason we maintain a very smooth hsf bottoms and thermal paste is to make sure we fill in the micro pits between the metals, so as to enhance heat transfer! What do you think will diamond dust will do with these two almost perfectly mating surfaces? Also, you mentioned diamond conducts heat better than anything else, but how about releasing the heat? How good is it when it comes to dissipating heat? A good heat conductor is not necessarily a good heat dissipator.

 

[Goi]

Technically thermal compounds don't need to dissipate heat - that's the heatsink's job. Thermal compounds just need to conduct heat, since they're in direct contact with the heat source(CPU) and the heat dissipater(heatsink)

 

[0roo0roo]

just wait for those synthetic diamonds to get bigger, maybe we'll have diamond heatsinks someday

 

[DrMrLordX]

It's been done

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
It's been done

:thumbsup:

 

[KDOG]

Drats, thought I was onto something...