I. Overview of Superconducting Materials Industry
A superconducting material is a material that exhibits properties of resistance equal to zero and repulsion of magnetic lines of force under certain low-temperature conditions. It has been found that 28 elements and thousands of alloys and compounds can become superconductors.
At present, the global superconducting market is dominated by low-temperature superconductors. The industrial chain of the low-temperature superconducting industry mainly includes four links: upstream raw materials, superconducting wires, superconducting magnets, and superconducting equipment. At present, most applications of low temperature superconducting materials are based on the strong magnetic field generated by superconducting magnets. The main application fields include MRI, MCZ, NMR, ITER, accelerators, special magnets for scientific research, etc.
In 1911, when Carmelin Annis of the Leiden Laboratory in the Netherlands measured the electrical conductivity of metals at low temperatures, he found that when the temperature dropped to 4.2K, the resistance of mercury completely disappeared. He called a conductor with this phenomenon as superconductor. After nearly 50 years of research, scientists have successively discovered that superconductors not only have zero resistance at a certain temperature, but also have high-density current-carrying capacity, complete diamagnetic properties (Meissner effect), and Josephson effect under certain conditions. And other conventional conductors have absolutely no electromagnetic characteristics, so they have a wide range of applications in the field of electrical and electronic engineering.
Analysis of market demand for superconducting materials
Superconducting materials are one of the leading materials in the development of new materials in the national science and technology innovation plan. They have broad application prospects in energy, medical, transportation, and defense industries, but because of their harsh conditions, high costs, and technical difficulties Large, so commercial applications are slower. At present, the global superconducting market is dominated by low-temperature superconducting materials. In addition to the ITER project, superconducting technology is widely used in civil fields, mainly including MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance), MCZ (for semiconductor single crystal silicon), large scientific engineering (CFETR, heavy ion accelerator) and other fields.
MRI is mainly used in magnetic resonance and other medical products, and has been widely used in the diagnosis of diseases of various parts of the body, and has become one of the most important medical diagnostic instruments. According to statistics, as of 2017, the number of MRIs per million people in the United States and Germany was 37.56 and 34.49, respectively. The number of MRIs per million people in other major developed countries was more than 10, while China had MRIs per million people. Owned only 6.2 units. Considering that China’s population ranks first in the world, the world’s largest market for MRI in the future will be in China. With the improvement of medical standards and the acceleration of urbanization, demand will further expand in the future.
Analysis of the competitive landscape of China’s superconducting materials industry
XBCD Superconductor has a very important position in the domestic and international superconducting product market, and the annual production capacity of superconducting materials is 750 tons. The XBCD superconducting superconducting business involves the production of NbTi ingots and wires, Nb3Sn wires (including the “Bronze Method” and “Inner Tin Method”) and the production of superconducting magnets. It is the only NbTi ingot rod and superconducting wire in the world. The full-flow production enterprise of superconducting magnets is currently the only commercial production enterprise of low-temperature superconducting wires in China. From the perspective of revenue, according to statistics, as of the first three quarters of 2019, western superconducting operating income was 983 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.8%, and net profit was 112 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%.
The main business income of XBCD Superconducting mainly consists of sales income of high-end titanium alloy materials, superconducting products and high-performance high-temperature alloy materials. According to statistics, the revenue of western superconducting superconducting products in 2016 was 171 million yuan, accounting for 17.94% of the revenue. As of 2018, the revenue of XBCD superconducting superconducting products had fallen to 109 million yuan, and the proportion of revenue fell to 10.28%.
In terms of sales volume, the sales volume of XBCD superconducting superconducting products was 177 tons in 2018, a year-on-year decrease of 22.4%. Capacity utilization is 30%.
Prospects for Chinese superconducting application technology
1. Prospects of superconducting power technology
The main challenges for the application and development of superconducting force technology are: whether the cost performance of superconducting materials can be similar to traditional conductive materials, and whether low-temperature refrigeration systems can have long-term reliability and stability. In particular, if higher critical temperature superconductors and even room temperature superconductors can be explored, and such new superconductors have good electromagnetic properties, the scale application of superconducting force technology will become a reality.
2. Prospects of superconducting magnet technology
The main challenges for the future development of superconducting magnet technology include the development of superconducting magnets for large-caliber high-field nuclear magnetic resonance imaging systems (9.4T and above, caliber 800mm), superconducting magnets for nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers with magnetic fields of 25T and above, General superconducting magnets for ultra-high fields (30T and above). The development of these special superconducting magnets is of great significance for humans to understand the structure and activity laws of matter and life.
3. Application prospects of superconductivity electronics
Superconductivity applications include microwave communication applications, various applications of Josephson junctions, and single photon detection. Different from the application of superconducting force technology and superconducting magnet technology, the application of superconductivity is mainly based on superconducting materials such as superconducting thin film materials and superconducting nanowires. At present, the technology for the preparation of superconducting thin films (such as Nb thin films and YBCO thin films) is quite mature, and the preparation of superconducting thin films in the laboratory has become a basic experimental method for studying superconducting physics. There are many applications for superconductivity, such as single photon detection, infrared detection, THz applications, superconducting Qubit, and superconducting quantum computing.
China is in the forefront of internationally leading superconducting materials and their applications. It has basically mastered a variety of practical superconducting materials and has made good progress in many applications. In the future, China’s superconducting materials and their application fields should further strengthen the research on the preparation process of superconducting materials and their application devices, continue to explore higher critical temperature superconductors, and strengthen the low-temperature refrigeration technology and low-temperature systems closely related to the application of superconducting technology Research in order to further comprehensively improve the development level of China’s superconducting materials and their application technologies.