Boron compound beats diamond for cooling electronics

As microelectronic devices become smaller, faster, and more powerful, thermal management is becoming a critical challenge. This work is claimed to provide new insight into the nature of thermal transport at a quantitative level and predicts a new material, with ultra-high thermal conductivity, of potential interest for passive cooling applications.

Calculating the thermal conductivity of cubic III-V boron compounds using a predictive first principles approach, the team has found boron arsenide (BAs) to have a remarkable room temperature thermal conductivity, greater than 2,000 Watts per meter per degree Kelvin (>2000 Wm^-1K^-1). This is comparable to those in diamond and graphite, which are the highest bulk values known.

Unlike metals, where the electrons carry the heat, diamond and boron arsenide are electrical insulators. For the latter type of materials heat is carried by vibrational waves (phonons) of the constituent atoms, and intrinsic resistance to heat flow results from these waves scattering from one another.