Materials Science World Congress

The materials are developed in such a manner that their mechanical and chemical properties remain unchanged when stored at super-low temperatures, typically below -150°C (-238°F). In this perspective, cryogenic materials are crucial to applications that require ultra-low temperature conditions, such as space travel, superconductors, long-term storage of cryogenic fuels, advanced medical instruments, among others.

One of the critical challenges in the development of cryogenic materials is that they maintain strength, flexibility, and the integrity of their structures when subjected to temperatures that would make many materials in conventional materials brittle or on the verge of failure. Relevant properties to be specific are low thermal conductivity as well as high fracture toughness, to further add, the resistance to thermal contraction.

Thus, also for different metals like stainless steel, aluminum alloys, and titanium alloys, there is a possibility of using such materials at extremely low temperatures; in fact they have shown strength as well as resistance toward embrittlement. For example, stainless steel is largely being used for fuel tanks and piping systems to store cryogenic liquefied gases like liquid nitrogen, liquid hydrogen, and liquid helium because it can tolerate structural changes due to extreme cold.

Cryogenic materials have been known to play an important role in the field of superconductivity. Superconductors have to work at cryogenic temperatures so as not to show any resistance in electricity. The highest performance materials used are in applications such as magnetic resonance imaging machines and particle accelerators, and the most common one is niobium-titanium alloys and ceramic-based superconductors.

Cryogenic materials also are critical for space, for spacecraft and satellites are operating in the vacuum of space at very low temperatures that can be pushed to extreme lows. In such environments, materials must be able not only to withstand the cold but also to the rapid thermal cycling as a spacecraft passes into and out of direct sunlight. Carbon-composite materials, special polymers, and metallic alloys are used in order to ensure strength and function through such harsh environments in building space crafts.

In the medical area, cryogenic materials are used in the storage of biological samples, such as in cryopreservation, and in cryosurgery, where ultra-cold temperatures are applied to destroy diseased tissue. The successful achievement of the goal of these medical technologies requires reliable subzero temperatures without degradation of material.

From cryogenic materials, great technologies that function in such ultra-low temperatures have been developed and are continuously under research and development for the production of even tougher and more efficient material, thus continuing innovation in aerospace, medicine, energy storage, and others.