This material is designed to withstand the conditions in the core of the Sun. Scientists have created an unusual alloy

A research team at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA, has succeeded in developing an alloy that is exceptionally resistant to extreme conditions. The first tests showed that the material is extremely resistant to strong radiation and extremely high temperatures, and in both situations it shows considerable stability. The alloy was created on the basis of tungsten, which is an element characterized by significant hardness, density and resistance to very high temperatures.

A unique alloy will push the development of clean fusion energy?

Scientists believe that the new alloy will find its application in thermonuclear reactors, which are currently used in research on controlled nuclear fusion. A reactor capable of obtaining energy from the controlled phenomenon of thermonuclear fusion is the holy grail for physicists dealing with the subject. All because of the almost cosmic conditions that are necessary to maintain such a reaction. The process requires a temperature of tens or hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius – currently, materials in the reactor work under conditions of enormous pressure and radiation. These conditions are comparable to those in the cores of stars such as the Sun (which, by the way, use nuclear fusion to produce light and heat). Therefore, the construction of reactors requires extremely resistant materials, because currently used tungsten alloys exposed to contact with plasma have a short life.

New material – – is an alloy with high entropy, i.e. consisting of five or more pure elements. The main one is, of course, the already mentioned tungsten. Another, used in smaller amounts, is hafnium, which was chosen because of the excellent results obtained in simulations. Such and no other selection of elements in the right proportions made it researchers have succeeded in creating the most resistant material ever tested. According to Osman El Atwani of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who led the study, the alloy shows great consistency between the modeling stage and the experimental stage, which makes it a great step towards developing even more durable materials, which are necessary for energy harvesting. from controlled thermonuclear fusion has become reliable, profitable, economically predictable and attractive to investors.

Scientists have been working for years on controlled nuclear fusion, which will bring clean energy profit, but the breakthrough came only at the end of last year. (i.e. more energy was obtained than was put into its production). Of course, so far the amount of this energy was small, but the experiment showed that it is indeed possible to generate energy from such reactions on Earth. These and other studies give hope that in a few years or decades we will be able to produce completely clean, safe electricity in a very predictable way.