Guo’s contraption relied of the phenomenon of capillarity, that makes the water molecule more prone to attach to the next unoccupied metal molecule rather than attaching to the next water molecule. Guo recently discovered that the same phenomenon happens to silicon, when etched by extremely short, high-powered laser bursts.
Important to mention is that there is no pressure pushing the liquid up the “straw”. One of his newly-built devices makes water going up at a speed of 3.5 cm per second.
Such systems could be used to “green-up” microprocessors, whose heat-dissipating mechanisms consume extra power from the grid, and limit the processors evolution. Liquids, if effectively used in processor cooling, can do a better job than air.
Chunlei Guo thinks that relating his new silicon-based mechanism to how processors work, can help the industry by providing an integrated cooling system for the silicon, which could recirculate the water inside the processor by this mechanism, requiring no extra energy whatsoever, thus saving precious energy and performance for the useful high-speed processing job.
