SPCR

I came across a Youtube video today showing mercury flowing in a circle when electrically charged next to a permanent magnet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V61ENFlR0S4

Got me wondering if a similar setup could replace pumps in liquid cooling loops.

Discuss.

Edit: Obviously this would have to be a durable, closed loop setup. It would definitely be the first off-the-shelf liquid cooling kit to be silent.

Um, mercury is expensive and poisonous. It's a hazardous substance which is a pain in the ass to clean up/dispose of. It's probably not very efficient eitehr. This is a horrible idea.

I'd strongly advise against experimenting with mercury. It's so toxic that just working with it and breathing the vapors can cause brain damage.

I appreciate the creativity involved in the idea, but.....

Plus, if you should happen to spill a drop of mercury on your aluminum heatsink, the heatsink will turn to dust due to the mercury opening the door to oxidation.

I think its a neat idea. No idea however to contain the vapors or choose a suitable tube that wont bond or a metal.

the heat capacity of mercury is terrible compared to water and some additive. the heat transfer obviously is amazingly good. I would assume the flow rate would have to be super high to pull heat off compared to water cooling.

Side note: people worry too much about flow rate in WC'ing. it really is a matter of size of radiator moreso.

There was a cooler that came out a few years ago that used mercury in the place of heatpipes and water. It had pretty good performance, but it cost upwards of $300 I think. Ah, here it is.

I guess if you made the entire thing like a water setup, then it may have better performance, but as everybody said mercury is extremely toxic. Also, your bottleneck would still be fan noise on the radiator. There are some pretty quiet water pumps out there...

m1st wrote:There was a cooler that came out a few years ago that used mercury in the place of heatpipes and water. It had pretty good performance, but it cost upwards of $300 I think. Ah, here it is.

Nope, wasn't mercury. NaK.

Ah, I see. My bad. I would imagine the principal would be the same though, no? I'm just not sure how feasible it would be to use.

Also, isn't Na and K rediculously reactive?

Yeah, with mercury being toxic, this wouldn't be such a great idea. I wonder if gallium would work, or galinstan. Gallium melts around 30C, so you'd have to make sure that your system kept it warm, galinstan is an alloy that freezes at -19C, so it would be liquid even at lower room temperatures. I guess the big question is whether or not gallium or galinstan would conduct enough to be useful in a pump. Interesting idea.