This superalloy can withstand some enormous pressure.
Superalloys are must-need materials for building things that need to operate under intense mechanical and thermal stress, like military weaponry and areospace engines. A new study designed a copper-tantalum-based superalloy (with added lithium) that can operate up to 800 degrees Celsius (1472 degrees Fahrenheit). This nanoscale approach to building new superalloys could lead to ever stronger materials for a variety of industries. Building the future requires materials that can hold up under immense pressure and temperature. No one knows this better than fusion physicists investigating ways to effectively bottle temperatures seven times hotter than the Sun. However, other applications—found across industries like aerospace, military, and energy—need materials that can withstand some seriously punishing conditions just as much. The materials of choice for many of these applications are nickel-based superalloys capable of operating right up to their melting points. But a team of researchers from several U.S. universities and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has recently developed a new copper-based material that can withstand…