July 14, 2010
No one's really 100 percent certain why the heat capacity of nano fluids is so much higher than other cooling fluids, but the fact is: They're really cool for hot electronics. They can offer up to a 350 percent cooling improvement over conventional coolants. But manufacturing nano coolants is slow, and the European Commission (EC) is looking for ways to ramp production and bring down the price. The avenue: the NanoHex nano cooling fluid project, headed by David Mullen of Thermacore, whom editor Chris Ciufo recently interviewed to get the whys and wherefores. Edited excerpts follow.