The result is a bond with 1.5 times the heat conduction of copper. Another advantage is that the material does not expand too much when heated, otherwise it couldn't be used in electronic devices.More details at Hardware.info.
It's not easy to create a stable bond between copper and diamond. The researchers use small amounts of chrome, which will form carbide-layers on the diamond, allowing copper to create bonds. It's possible that there are other materials with similar features.
Copper-diamond alloy promises better cooling
Posted on Wednesday, April 08 2009 @ 5:13 CEST by Thomas De MaesschalckScientists at the Fraunhofer-Forscher are working on a new copper-diamond alloy material, this could be useful for processor coolers or cooling devices for notebooks. Diamond conducts heat five times better than copper.
