Researchers used computer simulations to pinpoint a material that has the highest melting point known to science.
The material, which is made from a precise recipe of hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon, has a melting point of more than a scorching 7,460 degrees Fahrenheit, Brown University reported. This temperature is about two-thirds the temperature at the surface of the sun, and a whopping 200 kelvins higher than the highest melting point ever recorded in a lab setting.
The powerful computer simulations also suggested factors that could be contributing to the material's incredibly high melting point. The Hf-Ta-C material was observed to combine a high heat of fusion (the energy released when material is transformed from a solid to a liquid) with a small distance between the entropies of the solid and liquid phases.
"What makes something melt is the entropy gained in the process of phase transformation," said Axel van de Walle, associate professor of engineering and co-author of the study. "So if the entropy of the solid is already very high, that tends to stabilize the solid and increase the melting point."
Now, the researchers hope to synthesize the material and test it in a physical experiment. The findings could eventually lead to new high-performance materials for uses such as plating for gas turbines and heat shields on high-speed aircraft.
"Melting point isn't the only property that's important [in material applications]," van de Walle said. "You would need to consider things like mechanical properties and oxidation resistance and all sorts of other properties. So taking those things into account you may want to mix other things with this that might lower the melting point. But since you're already starting so high, you have more leeway to adjust other properties. So I think this gives people an idea of what can be done."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Physical Review B.
