Gallium Induced Failure of a Heat Sink

Greetings fellow nerds. In a previous video I turned a coke can into soft metal using gallium. Let’s try that again using an aluminum heat sink normally used for computer CPUs. So here is the heat sink without the fan, it’s quite solid and strong I scratched it up a bit with a file beforehand to get rid of the oxide layer. This is to let the gallium access the aluminum. I’m using a lot more this time since the heat sink is larger, about ten grams. Now to keep the gallium liquid the whole thing is on top of a lab heater that I've set for 60 Celsius. If you want some gallium yourself, I got mine from a company called galliumsource.com which I've linked in the video description. If you use the coupon code “NurdRage” then they’ll also give you a 5% discount on everything they sell so be sure to use that. They will also sell to individuals. Now we just wait for the gallium to do its thing. I left it here overnight so I'll skip over that part. Ok here we are the next day. it doesn’t look like much has changed, and it seems most of the gallium didn’t react. Let me just hold it up here..... Oh! it just broke right in my hand, it’s extremely weak now. Seriously, you have all got to try this, you feel like superman crushing real metal in your hand. Anyway, this is why you cannot use gallium based - - CPU thermal interface material when using an aluminum heat sink. Because you’ll destroy it. Hmm... It seems the gallium did the most damage at the joint between the fins and the core block. The core block still feels tough. I probably needed to let it sit longer for the gallium to infiltrate it. Let me take a look at these fins here. It’s hard to describe the feeling. Think of breaking up some crackers, this actually feels easier. Thanks for watching, please subscribe, like and comment.