A lightweight refractory metal-based composite material developed by Professor Fan Jinglian, director of the Institute of Refractory Metals and Cemented Carbides at ZNDX and executive deputy director of the Hunan Nanomaterials Engineering Center. It is used in cutting-edge fields such as hypersonic vehicles and missiles in China.
According to the column introduction, a certain type of hypersonic aircraft in our country requires to be able to fly in the atmosphere at 5 to 20 times the speed of sound for several hours. When the aircraft and the air friction, it will generate a high temperature of 2000-3000 degrees. Ordinary metals begin to melt at 1500 degrees, and the lightweight refractory metal-based composite materials developed by Professor Fan Jinglian can withstand high temperatures of more than 3000 degrees. This new material synthesized from high-temperature ceramics and refractory metals has a high melting point and a low density. The advantages are also good ductility. Professor Fan Jinglian said that this material is like a combination of cement and pebbles. Pebbles are equivalent to ceramic particles, and cement is equivalent to refractory metal. At high temperatures, the particles fix the refractory metal.
According to the column, in 2009, the state launched a major project for hypersonic vehicles. The main application is mainly carbon-carbon composite materials, and no one has proposed the use of metal materials. Professor Fan Jinglian proactively proposed that combining ceramics and refractory metals can solve the problems of high temperature resistance and high heat resistance, but was initially questioned by experts in related fields. Fan Jinglian did not choose to give up in the face of doubt. After numerous trials, material samples were released in 2012. By March of this year, the company had become the sole supplier of multiple models of products in the aerospace, defense, military, and ship industries.
Professor Fan Jinglian said that our knowledge must become the wealth of society and the country, serve our country, and occupy a world-leading position.
In addition, according to the China Science News, since 1990, Professor Fan Jinglian has been engaged in the research of new materials, new technologies and basic theories of refractory alloys, targeting refractory materials such as new spacecraft, rocket engines, and atomic energy. With the great demand of metal materials and the problems of insufficient toughness and poor resistance to high temperature oxidation and ablation of refractory metals, Fan Jinglian creatively proposed the "nano in situ composite / micro / nano composite" design idea and developed nano / micro / nano composite powders. The preparation principle and technology, the sintering theory of high-performance microstructure refractory composite materials was established, and a new field of "nano / micro-nano composite high-performance refractory metal-based composite materials" was opened, and a series of major breakthroughs were achieved.