He soon discovered that, although other materials had better structural properties, the foam had superior thermal properties. He obtained technology maturation funding from the Office of Technology Transfer and soon discovered that the material could be combined with aluminum or copper without too much penalty to its thermal properties. We ve been working with Craig Blue in Vinod Sikka s group to braze the foam to aluminum sheets, which would allow us to build structures with it, Klett says. It would be useful in a case where you need a moderate strength compound with high heat transfer capabilities. They are also working with the Polymer Composites group in the Engineering Technology Division to develop foam-core sandwich panels, as a replacement for metallic honeycomb.
Automotive applications are only part of the possibilities.
A board using carbon foam could be used to disperse heat in electronic components much more efficiently that conventional honeycombed boards. In computers, large, finned aluminum heat sinks, such as those joined to tiny cooling fans, could be replaced with sinks made of foam at only a fraction of the size a miniaturization breakthrough. Heat exchangers could also be drastically reduced in size. Needless to say, Klett s foam has a lot of lookers. Three patents have been filed already, and many different companies are evaluating the material for their individual needs.