Chapter 343 Materials that Affect National Development
Although he was busy until 2 a.m. last night, Xu Chuan still got up from bed at 7 a.m. the next day.
After a simple wash and breakfast, he quickly rushed to the institute.
The test of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite material is not over yet. Last night, he and Song Wenbo only tested the superconducting critical Tc temperature and Meissner effect. It was confirmed that this new copper-carbon-silver composite material can be transformed into a superconducting state at a temperature of 152K.
And the test items of a material are more than that.
In addition to the mechanical property test and electronic property measurement of ordinary materials, superconducting materials also have unique tests in terms of critical current density, vortex pinning performance, and captured magnetic field.
Compared with the ordinary properties of mechanics and electronics, the subsequent superconducting test is the key to the quality of a superconducting material.
For example, critical current density refers to the maximum current density that can be achieved under a certain chemical environment, and there will be no electrode corrosion or change in chemical impedance even at the maximum current flow.
If you know a little about superconductors, you generally know that superconductivity has the concept of critical temperature Tc. It is the temperature at which normal phase materials transform into superconducting materials.
But superconductors not only have critical temperature, but also critical current density and critical magnetic field strength.
Once the temperature is higher than the critical temperature/current density exceeds the critical current density/magnetic field strength exceeds the critical magnetic field strength, it will transition to the normal phase.
In other words, if the temperature is too high, the current is too large, and the magnetic field is too strong, the superconductor will lose its superconductivity.
However, there are no materials with high critical temperature, high critical current density and high critical magnetic field density among the superconductors prepared today, so the application of superconductors is not widespread.
But for this reason, the research on superconductors is of great value.
If a "three-high" superconductor (high critical temperature, high critical magnetic field, high critical current density) can be found, it will have broad application prospects.
Therefore, although the relevant research is not the most popular, it has always been one of the important research directions in the field of condensed matter physics.
And how to improve the critical current density and critical magnetic field density is also the most cutting-edge research direction in the field of superconducting materials.
So in the next period of time, Xu Chuan needs to conduct complete tests on the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material he prepared. To determine the parameters of all aspects of this new material.
In addition, he also needs to industrialize this product as soon as possible.
After all, time waits for no one. The controlled nuclear fusion project has been launched. Compared with the use of other superconducting materials, such as copper oxide-based superconducting materials to manufacture magnetic confinement devices, he is more willing and familiar with the use of copper-carbon-silver composite high-temperature superconducting materials developed by himself in the future.
On the one hand, it is not only because he is familiar with the performance of copper-carbon-silver composite high-temperature superconducting materials; on the other hand, the magnetic field strength that copper-carbon-silver composite high-temperature superconducting materials can provide is far greater than that of ordinary superconducting materials.
The reason why large-scale intense particle collisions are tens of kilometers is not only because the particles need to be accelerated to the extreme, but also because the superconductors that provide magnetic fields have limits.
For example, the LHC collider at the European Atomic Energy Research Center uses magnets made of niobium-titanium (NbTi) superconducting materials, which can currently only provide a magnetic field strength of 8.3 Tesla.
And this performance severely limits the energy level of the collision. The current collision energy level limit of the LHC is around 13Tev.
But if the magnetic field strength can be doubled to 16T, then at the scale of the LHC, the collision energy level can be increased to 100Tev.
The magnetic field strength doubles, and the collision energy level can be increased by nearly eight times.
This is the importance of the critical magnetic field of superconducting materials.
In controlled nuclear fusion, the importance of critical magnetic field strength is even greater.
A high critical magnetic field can provide a higher magnetic confinement force. Xu Chuan cannot build a reactor into a giant pile with a diameter of more than ten kilometers in order to increase the confinement force. That is not realistic.
So increasing the critical magnetic field is his only choice.
At present, the superconductor material with the highest critical magnetic field is the magnesium diboron ultra-low temperature superconductor material studied by Sakura Country, which can reach a magnetic field strength of 40 Tesla.
The magnetic field strength of 40 Tesla does not sound very exaggerated, but in fact it is already very amazing.
You will know it with a simple comparison.
Take the refrigerator, a common household appliance, as an example. The magnet used in the refrigerator is only one hundredth of a Tesla, that is, 0.01T.
In contrast, the value of 40T is very exaggerated.
However, due to the disadvantages of the material itself being difficult to shape and requiring an extremely low critical temperature, this magnesium diboron low-temperature superconducting material cannot be widely used in instruments and equipment, and is currently only used for laboratory research.
Although conventional copper oxide superconductor materials can also provide a magnetic field strength of about 20T, it also has the disadvantages of magnesium diboron ultra-low temperature superconductor materials.
As for copper carbon silver composite high temperature superconductor materials, the magnetic field strength of the materials he later studied is about 16T.
In this life, the critical magnetic field strength calculated using the high temperature superconductivity mechanism and mathematical model is still unknown.
From a calculation theory point of view, the solid magnetic field strength of this new copper carbon silver composite high temperature superconductor should be able to reach more than 20T.
The specific amount can only be known after testing
In Fan Pengyue's office at Chuanhai Institute of Materials, Xu Chuan touched his face unnaturally, feeling like there was something on it.
Opposite him, his master Xiong Fan Pengyue was staring at him with an extremely strange look.
Being looked at a little bit unbearable, Xu Chuan coughed, interrupted the weird atmosphere, and said: "I said, this is not the first time we have met, why are you staring at me like this? I don't have anything on my face. flower."
Hearing this, Fan Pengyue said strangely: "Are you really a human being?"
Xu Chuan twitched the corner of his mouth and said: "It's not necessary. Although the results of 152K high-temperature superconducting materials are indeed amazing, it does not mean that it is impossible."
Hearing this, Fan Pengyue wanted to roar. He felt that his three views were being infinitely challenged.
"Yes, high-temperature superconductivity at 152K is indeed not impossible!"
"But didn't you just take the laboratory's superconducting material data from me half a month ago!"
"Don't tell me that you did materials research when you were studying mathematics at Princeton!"
"Be a human being!"
You must know that when he was studying tungsten diselenide two-dimensional materials with his tutor during his Ph.D., he worked hard for more than a year and failed to find the correct route to synthesize tungsten diselenide.
In less than half a month after this monster obtained the superconducting material data, it raised the Tc critical temperature of the superconducting material from 43.5K to 152K. Not to mention an increase of more than 100 K, it also directly broke the current high-temperature superconducting material. record of.
To be honest, he wanted to cut open the monster's brain to see if there was a quantum computer inside.
Xu Chuan sighed and said: "Stop talking, there are still many things to be busy with later. Let's complete the test of this material first."
When chatting about business, Fan Pengyue also became serious. After thinking for a while, he said: "The testing of materials should not be a problem. Although we still lack equipment here to test some parameters, you can come forward and ask Nanda to borrow relevant equipment. It’s definitely no problem.”
"You and Song Wenbo have completed preliminary tests last night. The 152K high-temperature superconductor, even if its performance is weaker in other aspects, this temperature is destined to have a wide range of application prospects."
"Judging from the ultra-low temperature copper-carbon-silver superconducting materials that Song Wenbo studied before, the performance parameters of the material you studied should not be low."
As he said that, he seemed to remember something, looked at Xu Chuan and asked: "If I guessed correctly, your material should be studied using theory and mathematics with models, so you should have its relevant parameters and properties in hand. Prediction data?”
After a pause, he interrupted himself again, and continued: "No, there must be. Song Wenbo reported that you directly and accurately predicted its critical Tc temperature yesterday, so there must be other critical current and critical magnetic field data. "
Xu Chuan nodded and said: "Indeed, theoretically speaking, the critical magnetic field of this copper-carbon-silver composite high-temperature superconducting material should be able to reach more than 20T. As for the critical current, this needs to be determined based on the temperature and critical magnetic field. "
Hearing this, Fan Pengyue took a breath: "20T critical magnetic field? Are you sure you calculated it correctly? This number is terrifying!"
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It's okay. 20T is a conservative estimate. According to theory, if it is in perfect condition, its critical magnetic field can reach a maximum of 28.74T."
"Of course, this data should be impossible to achieve in reality."
Hearing this, Fan Pengyue couldn't help but swallowed air and said: "If this is the case, the value of this superconducting material will be great."
"Before, I was still thinking about how you plan to process this material in the future, whether to apply for a patent like the previous artificial SEI film, or whether to build your own factory to produce and sell finished products."
"Now it seems that building our own factory to produce is the only way."
"For high-temperature superconducting materials of this level, if you want to apply for a patent, the higher-ups may discuss it with you."
"Although there are some differences between papers and patents and actual manufacturing and technology, these materials are of extremely high importance and even involve national development. I am afraid that the superiors will not easily agree to you publishing the paper, right?"
After a pause, he remembered something again, and then asked: "Can your material be made into a wire? What are its traditional mechanical and electrical properties?"
Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "It should be possible to make it into a wire. The traditional mechanical and electrical properties are theoretically better than the copper oxide-based high-temperature superconducting material."
"But because of the crystal structure, it is still more biased towards ceramic solid state."
"If you want to apply it to power generation, transmission, energy storage, weak current and other fields on a large scale, it is still difficult at present."
After a pause, he added: "Of course, I will study and optimize it again during this period to see if I can continue to improve its performance."
"In other words, let's see if we can change or dope some other materials to optimize its traditional physical properties without affecting or having a small impact."
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