The Most Heat-resistant Material in the World

As the European Union tries to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, the Russian president recently said Russia would try to shift its energy exports to the east, adding that there was no way for European countries to give up Russian gas immediately.

Russia supplies about 40 percent of the EU's gas, and western sanctions imposed over the conflict with Ukraine have complicated financing and logistical arrangements for existing agreements, hitting Russian energy exports, the report noted.  

Russia has been building closer ties with China and other Asian countries as the European Union debates whether to impose sanctions on Russian gas and oil and member states seek supplies from elsewhere, Reuters said.  

"So-called partners from unfriendly countries admit that they cannot survive without Russian energy, including gas," the Russian president said in a televised government meeting. There is no reasonable alternative to Russian gas in Europe right now."  

He also said Europe was driving up energy prices and destabilizing markets by talking about cutting off Russia's energy supplies. Russia, which produces about a tenth of the world's oil and a fifth of its natural gas, will need new infrastructure to increase energy supplies to Asia, he said.

He ordered Moscow to submit a plan by June 1, including "the expansion of transport infrastructure to countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region".  

He also sought to clarify the possibility of integrating two pipelines -- the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline in the Far East and the "Power of Siberia" gas pipeline to China -- into Russia's unified gas supply system. In theory, connecting these routes to larger gas networks could allow Russia to divert gas from Europe to Asia.

Because of the ever-changing international situation, the supply and prices of international bulk tantalum carbide powder are still very uncertain.

Researchers have developed two new heat-resistant materials, tantalum carbide (TaC) and hafnium carbide (HfC), which can withstand temperatures up to nearly 4000℃.
 
It is worth mentioning that the research team from Imperial College London also found that the melting point of hafnium carbide set a new record in the field of materials. Considering the ability of the two materials to withstand extremely high temperatures of nearly 4000 ℃, the two materials are likely to be used in even harsher and extreme environments, such as the thermal shields of the next generation hypersonic spacecraft.
 
Both tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide are refractory ceramics, which means that these two materials have excellent heat resistance. The ability of the two materials to withstand extreme environments means that their potential applications may include thermal protection systems for high-speed spacecraft and fuel cladding in nuclear reactors in superthermal environments. However, because there is no technology to test the melting point of TaC and HfC in the laboratory, it is uncertain whether they are really competent to work in extreme environmental conditions.
 
To this end, researchers have developed a new extreme heating technology that uses lasers to test the heat resistance of TaC and HfC. Using this technique, the researchers determined the melting points of the single substance and mixture of TaC and HfC, respectively. The study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
 
They found that the measured melting point of the mixture of two kinds of ceramics (Ta0.8H2O20C) was consistent with the previous results, reaching 3905℃, but the melting point of the two compounds themselves was higher than previously found: The melting point of TaC was 3768℃, while that of HfC was 3958℃.
 
The emergence of these two materials will pave the way for the development of the next generation of hypersonic aircraft, the researchers said. This means that future spacecraft can become much faster than ever before.
 
The study was carried out by Dr Omar Dilos Balazar (Omar Cedillos Barraza) during his PhD in the Physics Department of Imperial College London.
 
"When an aircraft flies at a hypersonic speed of more than Mach 5, its friction with the air creates a very high temperature," Dr. Sediros Balazar said. So far, neither TaC nor HfC has been used in the development of hypersonic aircraft. However, our new findings show that these two materials are more heat-resistant than we previously thought, and in fact their heat resistance has exceeded that of any other known compound. This fact means that they may be used for new types of spacecraft: in the atmosphere, they can fly like ordinary aircraft and then fly through space at hypersonic speeds. These two materials enable the spacecraft to withstand the extreme heat generated by shuttling between the atmosphere. "
 
Examples of potential uses of TaC and HfC are the nose covers of spacecraft and the edges of external instruments that have the most friction with the outside world during flight.
 
At present, spacecraft with more than Mach 5 are not yet capable of manned flight. But Dr Sederos Balazar points out that this dream is likely to come true in the future.
 
Dr Sederos Balazar added: "our tests show that these two materials have great potential in building future space spacecraft. The fact that these two materials can withstand such high extreme temperatures means that it is really possible for manned hypersonic spacecraft to emerge in the future. If we can fly at Mach 5, the flight time from London to Sydney will only take about 50 minutes, which will open up a new continent with new business opportunities for countries around the world. "
 
Tantalum Carbide TaC and Hafnium Carbide HfC Powder Supplier
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The EU’s draft REPowerEU plan calls for an increase of 15TWh of rooftop PV capacity by 2022. The draft also calls for EU and national governments to take action this year to reduce the time required to obtain permits for rooftop PV installations to three months, and proposes that "all new buildings and existing buildings with an energy grade OF D or above should have rooftop PV installations by 2025".  

In addition, the European Commission is likely to set a target for installed PV capacity of 300GW by 2025 and 500GW by 2030. Some members are more aggressive, with Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Spain demanding a 1TW target for 2030.  

The REPowerEU initiative, worth 195 billion euros, was proposed by the EU on March 8 to phase out member states' dependence on Russian fossil fuels by 2030. In a few days, the European Commission will present a package to implement the RePowerEU strategy.  

As an important application scenario of distributed PV, rooftop PV is not limited to land, and the development conditions are relatively convenient.  

Since the end of 2021, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and other countries have introduced policies and measures such as government subsidies, tax cuts, fee reductions, and accelerated grid-connection approval to encourage the development of distributed PV.  Europe's potential for rooftop PV is huge and will continue to be an important growth pole for the industry, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology is a trusted chemical supplier and manufacturer providing high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. If you are looking for the tantalum carbide powder, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry.

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