Researchers at the University of Houston have achieved a significant breakthrough in the field of heat transfer, overturning the prevailing understanding of a fundamental property of diamonds.
The research team demonstrated that boron arsenide can conduct heat more efficiently than diamond, which has traditionally been considered the benchmark among isotropic materials, according to Science Daily.
According to the study published in the journal Materials Today, when boron arsenide crystals are produced with exceptionally high purity, they can reach thermal conductivity values above 2,100 W/mK (watts per meter-kelvin) at room temperature, potentially surpassing diamond itself.
From smartphones to data centers
This discovery overturns theoretical models of the past decade and opens new avenues for technologies where thermal management is a critical factor, ranging from smartphones and high-power electronics to data centers.
The scientific community had shown interest in boron arsenide as early as 2013, when theoretical predictions suggested it could be as effective as, or even more effective than, diamond in terms of thermal conductivity. However, revised models in 2017 lowered its estimated performance to 1,360 W/mK, leading many researchers to abandon the idea.
Professor Zhifeng Ren’s team at the University of Houston, however, hypothesized that the issue was not the material’s intrinsic capability but the impurities it contained. By refining raw arsenic and developing improved synthesis methods, the team succeeded in creating crystals with significantly fewer defects. When tested, these high-purity samples exhibited astonishing thermal conductivity exceeding 2,100 W/mK, surpassing even the theoretical “ceiling.”
Why it outperforms diamond and silicon
The implications of this discovery are enormous for the electronics industry. The main advantages of boron arsenide compared with diamond and silicon include:
- Easier and more cost-effective production than diamond, without the need for extreme temperatures or pressures.
- Exceptional thermal conductivity combined with effective semiconductor behavior.
- Potentially superior electronic performance compared with silicon due to high carrier mobility, a wide band gap, and a well-matched coefficient of thermal expansion.
“This new material is amazing,” Ren noted. “It has the best properties of a good semiconductor and a good thermal conductor, all the good properties in a single material. This has never happened before in other semiconductor materials.”