Continuous fiber of basalt based on lunar soil has been successfully prepared in China

Chinese researchers have successfully prepared lunar soil-based continuous fibers, achieving significant progress in simulated lunar soil continuous fiber preparation. They explored the feasibility of using lunar soil materials to prepare continuous fibers. They successfully produced lunar soil-based continuous fibers with a tensile strength exceeding 1400 MPa, comparable to commercialized terrestrial basalt fiber materials.

Researchers from the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beihang University, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ruili Separation Technology Co., Ltd conducted the research project. The research team, aiming at the demand for high-performance materials in lunar base construction, focused on simulated lunar soil as the primary research object. They analyzed samples' composition, structure, and thermodynamic behavior to explore the feasibility of using lunar soil materials to prepare continuous fibers.

The research results indicate that lunar soil has a chemical composition, mineral composition, and fiber-forming behavior similar to terrestrial basalt ore. Simulated lunar soil melts at 1332°C and transforms into an amorphous glass after quenching. Using the melt-drawing method, they also obtained lunar soil-based continuous fibers with a tensile strength exceeding 1400 MPa, a strength comparable to currently commercialized terrestrial basalt fiber materials.

The above research results confirm that continuous and controllable diameter fibers can be obtained from lunar soil as raw materials. These fibers are expected to be used to prepare lunar soil-based fiber-reinforced composite materials through composite technology, which is of great application value for constructing lunar bases using in-situ lunar resources.

As the next step, the team will focus on the moon's special environment, such as significant temperature differences between day and night, high vacuum, low gravity, etc., to conduct research on energy consumption during fiber preparation, the design and system integration of fiber production equipment, and the interaction between lunar soil fibers and matrices.

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