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Why are heat sinks black?

Updated: 12/23/2022
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10y ago

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Well, they aren't always black. Heatsinks that depend mostly on convection or forced air to dispose of waste heat can be any color.

However a heatsink that depends in large part on radiation to dispose of waste heat should be black. This is because the ideal emitter/absorber of radiation is a blackbody. A blackbody emits an ideal continuous spectrum of electromagnetic radiation with a peak at the high end of the band and no missing frequencies in that band. If the color is not black there are missing frequencies and the radiation is not the most efficient it could be.

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Q: Why are heat sinks black?
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