When it comes to pushing boundaries, China ranks high. The Asian giant always shows a notable inclination to carry out surprising projects, ranging from the construction of the Three Gorges Dam to the construction of roads without human intervention. Its advances also extend to the more strictly scientific field. A recent example of this is the presentation of the most powerful resistive magnet in the world.
After almost four years of development, the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences managed to generate a stable magnetic field of 42.02 Tesla. This is a milestone that has narrowly surpassed the record of 41.4 Tesla set in 2017 by a magnet with similar characteristics from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) of the United States. In any case, we are facing an interesting scientific advance.
A very important scientific advance
When we talk about resistive magnets We are referring to one of the different types of images that exist today. These are part of the group of electromagnets and are made of coils of common metals. They work with electric current, so they can be “turned on” or “off”. However, they produce a enormous quality of heatso they need robust cooling systems to be able to operate continuously.
We also find the superconducting magnets (although there are others). In this case, heat generation is minimal because superconducting materials can conduct electricity without resistance. But for this characteristic to occur, they must be kept at cryogenic temperature (about 268 degrees Celsius below zero), so a solution is usually to submerge them in liquid helium, but the price of helium is not exactly cheap.
Chinese researchers say that to reach the aforementioned milestone they had to innovate in the structure of the resistive magnet and optimize the manufacturing process. In the test that exceeded 42 Tesla, they had to supply 32.3 megawatts of power. Experts used a liquid cooling system to control the temperature of the magnet during tests that pave the way for a wide range of discoveries.
When these powerful magnets are available to science, they can be used by laboratories and universities to make extremely precise measurements and observe very weak phenomena. Magnetic fields help find new materials for quantum technologies, but their scope goes beyond physics. They are also very useful in fields such as chemistry, biology and engineering.
Images | Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences
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