Liquid metal phase change materials for thermal management of electronics

Abstract

ABSTRACTWith the rapid development of various chips towards high performance and integration, the ‘thermal barrier’ difficulty facing electronic devices has become ever increasingly challenging, while at the same time the space size left for thermal management system already becomes much narrower. In view of the intermittent operation or short-time large power consumption of some electronic devices, the thermal management technology based on phase change materials (PCMs) has received more and more attention. Among those cutting edge PCMs, the liquid metal phase change materials (LMPCMs) especially have aroused much interest due to their outstanding merits in thermal conductivity, energy storage density and stability. In this article, the representative works on LMPCMs are comprehensively reviewed. First, the thermophysical parameters of LMPCMs characterized by high thermal conductivity and large density are summarized. Then, some basic research cases on the thermophysical properties of metallic PCMs that are worthy of further investigation are briefly introduced. In view of the serious supercooling problem of the LMPCMs, the factors affecting the supercooling degree of liquid metal (LM), particularly the thermal history effect, based on the nucleation theory, are presented. Strategies for suppressing supercooling using nucleating agents and crystal species as well as external fields are also introduced. In addition, the mathematical models and related numerical algorithms for interpreting the phase change heat transfer mechanisms of LM are illustrated. Finally, the performance advantages of LMPCMs over other PCMs, as well as the technical approaches to further improve various properties of LMPCM heat sinks, are demonstrated by showing typical application cases. Based on the above, the current research status of LMPCMs and promising future research hotspots are prospected.This review is expected to help researchers interested in LMPCMs to quickly grasp the performance, heat transfer evaluation methods, and research status of LMPCMs, and also to provide a guidance for engineers in related fields to conduct further design and practices.

Keywords

• Liquid metal
• phase change materials
• thermal management
• electronics