 "What is niobium alloy that China is claiming a breakthrough in?")
For over three years, astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have been conducting an experiment that may seem routine at first glance. The process involves striking alloy particles suspended in a vacuum chamber with a laser and observing the subtle changes as the particles cool. The experiment has been ongoing for so long that the equipment and samples have been replaced three times, but the results have proven worthwhile.
According to the South China Morning Post, scientists back on Earth have used data from the experiment to produce a niobium-silicon alloy that meets the stringent requirements of industrial applications for the first time.
This breakthrough could revolutionise aerospace technology. Niobium-silicon alloy, for example, can be used to make turbofan engine blades capable of withstanding temperatures exceeding 1,700 degrees Celsius (3,092 degrees Fahrenheit).
However, niobium-silicon alloy has two significant drawbacks: the crystals’ slow growth—requiring 100 hours at nearly 1,600 degrees Celsius—and the material’s brittleness at room temperature, which makes it unsuitable for engine manufacturing.
By using a new rapid cooling method, scientists achieved a production speed of nearly 9cm per second for high-quality niobium-silicon crystals. Additionally, adding trace amounts of hafnium increased the alloy’s room-temperature strength by over three times, meeting the standards required for engine assembly.
“Improving fracture toughness is crucial for the industrial application of niobium-silicon-based alloys,” wrote Wei and his colleagues in a peer-reviewed paper published on December 27 in Acta Physica Sinica, a journal of the Chinese Physical Society, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
Impact Shorts
View AllNorthwestern Polytechnical University in Xian, known for its cutting-edge research on technologies like hypersonic aircraft, has faced severe sanctions from the United States. These sanctions have led to increased support from the Chinese government and military, enabling Wei’s team to conduct experiments aboard the still-under-construction Chinese space station since 2021.
The microgravity environment has allowed Chinese scientists to observe unprecedented phenomena, including a unique shrinkage pore structure during the alloy’s rapid solidification and a completely different crystal growth pattern compared to ground-based experiments.
These discoveries have deepened the team’s understanding of the physical properties of niobium-silicon alloy, leading to more practical and efficient production methods.
“This is a gift from heaven,” a materials scientist in Beijing not involved in the research told the South China Morning Post. “It’s hard to imagine a team being able to secure so many resources and persist for so long in conducting such a challenging experiment in space. If niobium-silicon alloy can be mass-produced in the future, it will give China a huge advantage in the military and high-end manufacturing sectors.
“This is proof of how important it is for a country to have its own space station.”
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