Oil futures tumbled more than $5 a barrel on news that the Biden administration is considering releasing about 1 million barrels a day from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for several months to cool surging crude prices.

Brent crude futures were down $4.71, or 4.2 percent, at $108.58 a barrel by 0035 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell $5.45, or 5 percent, to $102.74 a barrel.

At an earlier time, gasoline prices had already reached record levels because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The prices of other commodities like the tantalum carbide powder are also expected to be volatile.

Researchers have developed two new heat-resistant materials, tantalum carbide (TaC) and hafnium carbide (HfC), which can withstand temperatures up to nearly 4000℃.
 
It is worth mentioning that the research team from Imperial College London also found that the melting point of hafnium carbide set a new record in the field of materials. Considering the ability of the two materials to withstand extremely high temperatures of nearly 4000 ℃, the two materials are likely to be used in even harsher and extreme environments, such as the thermal shields of the next generation hypersonic spacecraft.
 
Both tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide are refractory ceramics, which means that these two materials have excellent heat resistance. The ability of the two materials to withstand extreme environments means that their potential applications may include thermal protection systems for high-speed spacecraft and fuel cladding in nuclear reactors in superthermal environments. However, because there is no technology to test the melting point of TaC and HfC in the laboratory, it is uncertain whether they are really competent to work in extreme environmental conditions.
 
To this end, researchers have developed a new extreme heating technology that uses lasers to test the heat resistance of TaC and HfC. Using this technique, the researchers determined the melting points of the single substance and mixture of TaC and HfC, respectively. The study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
 
They found that the measured melting point of the mixture of two kinds of ceramics (Ta0.8H2O20C) was consistent with the previous results, reaching 3905℃, but the melting point of the two compounds themselves was higher than previously found: The melting point of TaC was 3768℃, while that of HfC was 3958℃.
 
The emergence of these two materials will pave the way for the development of the next generation of hypersonic aircraft, the researchers said. This means that future spacecraft can become much faster than ever before.
 
The study was carried out by Dr Omar Dilos Balazar (Omar Cedillos Barraza) during his PhD in the Physics Department of Imperial College London.
 
"When an aircraft flies at a hypersonic speed of more than Mach 5, its friction with the air creates a very high temperature," Dr. Sediros Balazar said. So far, neither TaC nor HfC has been used in the development of hypersonic aircraft. However, our new findings show that these two materials are more heat-resistant than we previously thought, and in fact their heat resistance has exceeded that of any other known compound. This fact means that they may be used for new types of spacecraft: in the atmosphere, they can fly like ordinary aircraft and then fly through space at hypersonic speeds. These two materials enable the spacecraft to withstand the extreme heat generated by shuttling between the atmosphere. "
 
Examples of potential uses of TaC and HfC are the nose covers of spacecraft and the edges of external instruments that have the most friction with the outside world during flight.
 
At present, spacecraft with more than Mach 5 are not yet capable of manned flight. But Dr Sederos Balazar points out that this dream is likely to come true in the future.
 
Dr Sederos Balazar added: "our tests show that these two materials have great potential in building future space spacecraft. The fact that these two materials can withstand such high extreme temperatures means that it is really possible for manned hypersonic spacecraft to emerge in the future. If we can fly at Mach 5, the flight time from London to Sydney will only take about 50 minutes, which will open up a new continent with new business opportunities for countries around the world. "
 
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As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to develop, there is growing concern about the potential disruption of Russia's energy supply. Geopolitical premiums have pushed up the price of crude oil and natural gas, and the energy price is expected to remain high in the short term. Affected by this, the market price of the tantalum carbide powder may keep rising.

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