We developed a paraffin/liquid metal (LM)/graphene hybrid thermal material with a high thermal-conductivity leakage-free composite that retained a constant high available latent heat. The paraffin used was encapsulated in a calcium alginate, which produced leakage-free PCM capsules. The liquid metal was filled into PCM capsules to enhance overall heat conduction Graphene nano-sheets were coated for efficient heat dissipation by enhanced thermal radiation. The composite was utilized as a thermal buffer (TB) for a CPU thermal management to demonstrate the synergy of these superior thermal properties. In certain cases, active cooling normally used could be replaced by the PCM/LM/graphene TB without any energy consumption for thermal management, demonstrating a completely passive cooling strategy. Thus, the proposed TB using this hybrid material has potential for more efficient and sustainable data center cooling alongside thermal management of other ground-based electrical/electronic equipment, ultimately reducing energy consumption and contributing to carbon neutralization, and mitigation of global warming.

Dr. Ji-Xiang Wang is currently a senior researcher in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is graduated from Beihang University, China in 2019 with a PhD in Man-machine and Environmental Engineering. He once worked as a researcher in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In the international community, he serves as an editorial member for Physics of Fluids and a special issue guest editor for Energies. His research focuses on aerospace-oriented heat/mass transfer and fluid mechanics, renewable energy applications, complex thermofluids modelling etc. As a young scientist, he has published 30+ articles in world-prestigious journals as first/corresponding author. As a principal investigator, he led/participated multiple national and enterprise grants. He won Innovation Award from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China.