Silica gel is often found as a small packet inside electronic goods or anything really that the manufacturer was trying to keep in a low moisture environment.
Recently for my own reasons I figured I’d look into the properties of this stuff and came away rather impressed with such an innocuous substance. It comes in certain varieties and I’m able to find the details of that part. What I can’t seem to find an answer about is whether Silica gel absorbs heat.
I’ve read in plenty of places that the gel can be recharged in the oven since it’s very hydroscopic. What I’m trying to figure out though is if there is a variety of this material that would absorb or deflect/channel or otherwise move away heat from a surface it’s in contact with.
Any ideas brilliant minds out there? ( I wasn’t being sarcastic )
There is a gel that can be applied to a metal surface that protects adjoining areas from overheating. I believe it verbs by evaporation or sublimation. Probably not what you’re looking for either.
Silica gel absorbs moisture because it is very porous, and therefore has a huge surface area. Water molecules just stick to the surface. But this property doesn’t really have anything to do with heat transfer.
Maybe if you could explain your setup and requirements in more detail, we can suggest materials that might work.
If you want to maintain something at a constant temperature for as long as possible, even as the environmental temperature is changing, then what you usually want is some material that goes through a phase transition at the appropriate temperature. If you’re not too picky on precisely what the temperature is, just that it be constant, then water is usually the best choice, because it’s got a relatively high latent heat, it’s cheap, and it won’t damage most things used by humans.
To draw heat away from a hot surface what’s used is not “heat absorbers” (of which silica gel wouldn’t be very good anyway), it’s “heat conductors”, of which the best are metals. To compare heat conductors you want their heat conductivity coefficients.
I have an aluminum “monitor riser”, bought when computer boxes moved from being horizontal and under the monitor to being “towers”, which is a superb laptop base: it rises it to a more ergonomic level and draws heat away much better than the plastic “cooler bases” currently found in stores. And it’s just an aluminum tube frame and an aluminum plate.
No problem “R”, It’s off my topic, but I’ve even seen “cat litter” face mask recipes on youtube, because the same clays used in it are in many of the pricier mud mask products. Imagine THAT after you’ve baked all that pee and water out of mr. meow’s favorite launching grounds.
Since you sound like you are going for this, (the recharging part) You should find an example online to best fit your particular variety. From what I’ve read it’s a specific range of temperature usually on the lower side to recharge it properly. In other words low heat and longer duration.
Ok, I guess there’s just no avoiding things, even though I’m already bracing for the onslaught of ideas that I’ve probably already considered. Truthfully I just find the material interesting, from my looking around the stuff can be made to absorb shock and always draws water away. I figured if I could just find some that would also wick away HEAT it would be some grand trail to Nirvana to start wrapping electronics in. For instance a silica gel wrap that could be wrapped around a portable HDD which would depending on the amount of wraps give a small degree of shock absorption draw away moisture AND… were it to have some kind of heat channeling ability also would heat the wrap more the device it’s around. Without this property something wrapped around the HDD would only serve to smother the HDD increasing resistance of heat dissipation. That would surely make the drive fail sooner.
MY thing is, I like to prolong the life of things. By creating conditions for something that is easier on it than how it was originally tested by the manufacturer there is no guarantee that something ELSE might not happen to it, but just the same you make it easier for that “thing” to exceed the OEM projected lifespan.
I’m not old and retired with nothing better to do, I just find materials interesting; call it a “hobby”.
But Helium II is your top-of-the-heap, king-of-the-hill in thermal conductivitiy. Warning: While Happy Fun Ball maybe usable at these temperatures, your typical semiconductor will not.
So the results to my OP, are pretty scatter-brained to say the least. I didn’t ask about the world’s best insulators, while the pissing match is cute, how am I to implement knowledge about diamonds or the other material mentioned?" Yeah, lemme just get a box of that at my local Dollar Store and I’m all set.":eek: No?
I posted asking about Silica Gel and the closest help I got was the silicone gap filler material ( thank you sir at least this is affordable). Just the same, based on the responses I’m getting am I to infer no one has further knowledge about this stuff?
If that is the case could I get a referral to some place that might have the answers I’m after?
I wasn’t being facetious; diamond is in fact used as a heat sink for electronics. While not as cheap as silica gel, it has come down in price in recent years to be surprisingly affordable in certain applications. Google diamond heat sinks for more info
It was (and still is) very unclear what you were asking. I think we all understood your OP to mean “what material exist that can absorb heat the way silica gel absorbs moisture?”. The answers given so far are reasonable - including diamond, which is used for cooling high-power components like laser diodes.
It’s also not clear, if you want something that’s “best”, just what you mean by that. Diamond is more effective than most heat-conduction materials, but it’s also more expensive. Is that “better”? That depends on what your budget is.
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