Data centers are indispensable in our digital age, where the demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and streaming services continues to surge. But these server farms, packed with powerful processors, are also energy-hungry beasts. They require vast amounts of electricity to keep cool, driving up operational costs and contributing to carbon emissions. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have come forward with a potential solution.
Researchers developed a new “thermal interface material” (TIM) designed to dissipate heat more efficiently than anything currently available on the market. This material, made by blending a liquid metal alloy called Galinstan with ceramic aluminum nitride, outperforms the best commercial liquid metal cooling products by up to 72%.
Not your typical CPU thermal paste
Data centers, which power everything from cloud storage to AI models, generate enormous heat. Cooling these facilities accounts for roughly 40% of their total energy consumption. Globally, that translates to around 8 terawatt-hours of energy use annually—enough to power entire cities. As AI and machine learning applications expand, the pressure on data centers is only set to grow. Goldman Sachs recently predicted that data center power demand could surge by 160% by 2030, with AI alone potentially adding 200 terawatt-hours per year in power consumption over the next decade.
This is where the new TIM developed at the University of Texas comes in. The researchers achieved a remarkable feat by combining the liquid metal with ceramic particles using a process known as mechanochemistry. This method creates controlled, gradient interfaces within the material, allowing heat to flow through it more efficiently than ever before. The result is a TIM capable of dissipating an impressive 2,760 watts of heat from an area as small as 16 square centimeters.
“This breakthrough brings us closer to achieving the ideal performance predicted by theory,” said Kai Wu, the lead author of the study. “Our material can enable sustainable cooling in energy-intensive applications, from data centers to aerospace, paving the way for more efficient and eco-friendly technologies.”
Impact Beyond the Lab
The new material could drastically reduce the need for energy-intensive fans and pumps in data centers, cutting their energy usage for cooling by up to 65%. If deployed industry-wide, this technology could lower cooling energy demands by 13%, reducing overall data center power consumption by at least 5%.
Guihua Yu, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering and Texas Materials Institute, emphasized the urgency of finding new solutions. “The power consumption of cooling infrastructure for energy-intensive data centers and other large electronic systems is skyrocketing,” Yu noted. “That trend isn’t dissipating anytime soon, so it’s critical to develop new ways, like the material we’ve created.”
But the journey from the lab to the real world remains a challenge. So far, the team has only tested the material on a small scale in controlled lab environments. The next step involves scaling up production and conducting field trials with data center partners. If successful, this new cooling technology could soon become a staple in the industry, allowing server farms to run more processors in the same space without overheating.
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While it may take years before this technology is available for consumer use, the implications for large-scale data operations are clear. By making data centers more efficient, it could help curb the world’s ever-expanding environmental digital footprint.
The findings appeared in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
