Is There A Material With A Melting Point Of 10,000 Degrees?

Nov 22, 2019

Ask about the highest melting point in the world, or the most difficult to melt, and many people will rush to answer "tungsten", but today I can tell you, this answer can only be half right. It is well known that tungsten is the pure metal with the highest melting point in the world, and the most refractory material in the world is tungsten, which is a kind of hafnium carbide and nitride. Curious? Come with me to explore the world's most melting.

Under extreme conditions, Russian researchers synthesized a powder mixture by pulse flame sintering. The material, which consists mainly of hafnium carbide and nitride, has a melting point of 4,126.85 ° c, two-thirds the temperature of the sun. This hafnium carbide and nitride has by far the highest melting point of any material in the world. Such high-temperature resistant materials will be mainly used in the defense industry, aerospace, electronic information, energy, chemical protection, metallurgy and nuclear industry and other cutting-edge fields, with good application prospects. At present, researchers are studying the synthesis of the material and the solid phase transition process, which is expected to be applied in the near future.

Among all the metal elements in the periodic table, tungsten has the highest melting point, with a melting point of 3422 ℃ (boiling point of 5930 ℃). No other metal element has a higher melting point than tungsten. The reason why tungsten has a very high melting point is related to the very high bond energy of the metal bond.

Tungsten is element 74, in the sixth cycle of the periodic table VIB group. Among tungsten's relatives, they have the most valence electrons of any metal element, as many as six, which means that each atom can form six metal bonds, so this group of elements has very high bond energies, leading to very high melting points. Combined with other bonding parameters, tungsten has the strongest bonding ability, making it the metal with the highest melting point.

However, there are other elements that can withstand higher temperatures than tungsten. Solid carbon can withstand temperatures of 3,627 ° c. But carbon has no fixed melting point (1 standard atmosphere) because it sublimes at about 3,627 ° c, while carbon has a triple point temperature of 4330 ° c (10.8 MPa). So before it melts, the solid carbon will just sublimate into the gas phase.

What's the use of high-melting tungsten? The tungsten filament of the bulb, which is the most common application. At present, the main use is the production of tungsten steel, high hardness, wear resistance, strength and toughness, heat resistance, corrosion resistance and a series of excellent performance, at 1000℃ still has a very high hardness.

It is also a strategic metal because it can make guns, armor-piercing warheads, rocket propellant nozzles, metal cutting blades, hard drills, and so on.