Lasers, Levitation and Machine Learning Make Better Heat-Resistant Materials
Argonne scientists across several disciplines have combined forces to create a new process for testing and predicting the effects of high temperatures on refractory oxides.
Cast iron melts at around 1,200 degrees Celsius. Stainless steel melts at around 1,520 degrees Celsius. If you want to shape these materials into everyday objects, like the skillet in your kitchen or the surgical tools used by doctors, it stands to reason that you would need to create furnaces and molds out of something that can withstand even these extreme temperatures.
That’s where refractory oxides come in. These ceramic materials can stand up to blistering heat and retain their shape, which makes them useful for all kinds of things, from kilns and nuclear reactors to the heat-shielding tiles on spacecraft. But considering the often-dangerous environments in which
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IMAGE: Illustration of the aerodynamic levitation process for studying refractory oxides at their melting points at the APS. A small bead of material is buoyed by gas and heated up by. view more
Credit: (Image by Ganesh Sivaraman/Argonne National Laboratory.)
Argonne scientists across several disciplines have combined forces to create a new process for testing and predicting the effects of high temperatures on refractory oxides.
Cast iron melts at around 1,200 degrees Celsius. Stainless steel melts at around 1,520 degrees Celsius. If you want to shape these materials into everyday objects, like the skillet in your kitchen or the surgical tools used by doctors, it stands to reason that you would need to create furnaces and molds out of something that can withstand even these extreme temperatures.
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IMAGE: Argonne researchers used supercomputers to optimize the design of piston bowls in heavy-duty engines for Caterpillar Inc. The top designs reduced fuel consumption and soot formation, and others had potential. view more
Credit: (Image by Chao Xu/Argonne National Laboratory.)
Argonne is helping Caterpillar improve efficiency and reduce emissions in their heavy-duty diesel engines.
Heavy-duty diesel engines still power most large vehicles used in the construction, mining and transportation industries in the United States. Engineers are working to improve the fuel efficiency of these engines while minimizing pollution to reduce energy consumption and ensure the sustainability of these industries in the future.
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IMAGE: (Left) Through neutron scattering experiments, scientists observed distinct patterns of magnetic correlations in superconducting ( single-stripe magnetism ) and nonsuperconducting ( double-stripe magnetism ) samples of a compound containing iron (Fe), tellurium (Te), and. view more
Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory
UPTON, NY Scientists characterized how the electronic states in a compound containing iron, tellurium, and selenium depend on local chemical concentrations. They discovered that superconductivity (conducting electricity without resistance), along with distinct magnetic correlations, appears when the local concentration of iron is sufficiently low; a coexisting electronic state existing only at the surface (topological surface state) arises when the concentration of tellurium is sufficiently high. Reported in
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