I was wondering if Liquid Metal Thermal Grease could be placed on a peltier's hot side to better conduct heat from the hot side to the heat sink.
I know that aluminum is "Eaten" away by the thermal grease; however, Peltier's have a ceramic casing that is apparently non-conductive.
Thank you
Best Answer
There are soft metals (indium, for instance) that make good thermal gaskets, but for a Peltier module with a flat ceramic pad, a flat heatsink just needs a very thin layer of some grease to make good thermal contact. The flatter the heatsink, the thinner the grease layer. Unless the ceramic has extremely high thermal conductivity, the thermal resistance of the series ceramic-grease-metal thermal path is not dominated by the grease.
So, the answer is yes, the thermal conductivity of the 'grease' matters. But it doesn't matter much.