The 45.22-tesla magnet is just short of the record for the earth’s most powerful magnet.

China reportedly made the world’s strongest magnet for research purposes at a lab in the south east city of Hefei, in the Anhui province, a statement from the South China Morning Post reveals.

The magnet is said to be roughly the size and shape of a coin, having a diameter of just 33mm. Despite its modest size, it develops a strong magnetic field strength of 45.22 tesla, that is greater than a million times more potent than the Earth’s magnetic field.

World Record Breaking Magnets

Physicists from the United States National High Magnetic Field Laboratory made a world record-breaking 45.5-tesla field in 2019. However, these professionals did that with a test magnet that wasn’t made use of in scientific experiments.

The Hefei facility has become the highest steady-state magnetic field that can assist scientific research.

The original world record was created by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in the United States in 1999. Its hybrid magnet generated 450,000 gauss [45 tesla], and it has held the record for twenty-three years.

Developing such powerful magnetic fields requires a tremendous load of energy, although the rewards could also be world-changing. Scientists around the world are producing incredibly powerful magnets in a bid to harness the great capability of nuclear fusion energy, which could diminish the entire world’s reliance on fossil fuels.

At the Heifei center, a group of physicists employed a powerful magnet in 2016 to conduct experiments, that led to the observance of a new physical phenomenon in carbon nanotubes. Their breakthrough has prospective uses in the semiconductor market, as scientists are seeking to substitute silicon with carbon in chips to create super-fast low-power computer systems.

Uncovering nuclear fusion as well as various other developments

Professor Kuang Guangli, the lead expert on this magnetic field project stated that the team has effectively produced the most powerful magnet all over the world for scientific research purposes.

Although the country’s magnetic field research laboratory started fairly late, it only took about 10 years to make the big step from zero to a pacesetter, creating the China speed for the innovation of strong magnetic technology the report said.

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