How to: Make your own Diamond thermal paste!

papu

http://inventgeek.com/Projects/diamondgrease/page4.aspx

sources say petras tech shop will be selling some kind of diamond thermal paste in a couple of weeks..Suprising results , but that stuff must be damn expensive ;/

nibble

Rofl, I saw this and was shocked that it was that easy! Hmm might have to pick up some diamond powder...

papu

XD yeah , if it works that well its incredible :P ....diamonds wont only be a girls best friend :rolleyes:

L31mr0d

anyone know where we could get the diamond dust?

papu

http://www.diamondtech.com/products/catalogue/diamond_powder_300_mesh.html

L31mr0d

Was in contact with Dave from easypckits.com about the possibility of him sourcing some diamond dust for me (I know him from some tech sites and his info can usually be trusted, plus he has a few sources for diamond dust as its also used in polishing compounds)

Here's what he said about this article:

Dave wrote:

I have indeed considered diamond dust "home brews" but every time I tried, I ran into consistency problems from suppliers. Basically, I think that the largest problem with diamond thermal compounds at this time is the shape and grain size of the diamond powder. When you are talking sub 2-micron size, it is very hard to be consistent in your granular consistency - and diamond is VERY hard to grind, obviously. It is so tough that consistent shapes of the ground dust is also difficult - ground diamond shapes tend to be triangular or "pointy", while silver tends to be "flakey" or cubic. In other words, diamond is very thermally conductive WITHIN ITSELF but moving the heat from the diamond to other surfaces is a bit more difficult. The diamond furthermore does not interact well from grain to grain.

Do I think some folks will be bringing some commercial diamond products to market soon? No doubt. I also think you will see wild swings of it being successful for some people and a dud for a lot of others. IMHO, I am convinced that we are still a couple years off from having a commercially viable diamond product, and that the next big gain in performance will come in the application arena and getting the bond layer down thinner. I work very closely with ArcticSilver's development team and they tell me that they have tried a LOT of diamond research and the biggest problem is in the carrier and grain size. They have been working on this approach for more than a couple of years now but haven't been able to make it work to their satisfaction such that they are willing to stand behind it long-term as a salable product. I WISH I had a diamond product I could stand behind... I could sell a lot of it! But I am not comfortable making claims that I can't back up with extended testing.

I do have a bit of an issue with the site you linked - NOT with their final results but with the methodology and repeatability, I would like to see them repeat the mix and performance several times from scratch. For example, "Polytetraflouroethylene" or PTFE is better known as... TEFLON, and can break down under thermal stress; is conducts better than insulates but is still a marginal thermal conductor. PDMS is the active ingredient in the white standard cheap silicon grease - I'm not comfortable using that on my best equipment and you shouldn't either. I would advise anyone wanting to try making their own diamond compound to be careful as always, act conservatively, and do not experiment on equipment that you cannnot afford to mess up.

DirkVoodoo

Nice reply L31mrod, slightly off topic: just got my lapping kit from Dave and I would recommend his site to anyone interested in lapping/polishing, excellent service!

ricka05

http://www.petrastechshop.com/icdi7cathco.html