Kempiński Wojciech, Banat Piotr, Kempiński Mateusz, Trybuła Zbigniew, Niechciał Jakub, Chorowski Maciej, Poliński Jarosław, Chołast Katarzyna
Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 60-179, Poznań, Poland.
Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, 61-614, Poznań, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):22822. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-05542-8.
The world needs clean energy. One of the most promising ways of producing it in large amounts is the helium3-deuterium ( ) fusion reaction. Although there are numerous sources of on Earth, most of them are either difficult to access or unprofitable to operate. The main problem underlying the shortage of is the lack of an effective method of obtaining this isotope. Here we report the results of quantum filtration of from liquid helium in a superfluid state (below the -transition), with the use of an entropy filter made of a high-temperature superconductor YBCO-123. During the operation of so-called fountain effect generated with this filter, unlike the other filters, we observed a strong increase of concentration downstream, where only pure was expected. This effect occurred due to the unique combination of two quantum phenomena-superfluidity and superconductivity, leading to the observation of a low-temperature rectification-like process. Rectification of helium isotopes does not require lowering the temperature below the -transition, so the process can be more economical than filtration. Moreover, micro-superconductors could be applied also to the extraction of deuterium, thus allowing the same method to be used for both crucial components of the fusion. This method should be easy to upscale and could be used in space (with less energy input) as , the crucial isotope for future energy, is also sought beyond the Earth.
世界需要清洁能源。大量生产清洁能源最有前景的方法之一是氦 - 3 - 氘（³He - D）聚变反应。尽管地球上有大量的³He来源，但其中大多数要么难以获取，要么运营成本过高。³He短缺的主要问题在于缺乏一种有效的获取这种同位素的方法。在此，我们报告了在超流态（低于λ转变温度）下，利用高温超导YBCO - 123制成的熵过滤器从液氦中对³He进行量子过滤的结果。在使用该过滤器产生所谓喷泉效应的过程中，与其他过滤器不同，我们观察到下游³He浓度大幅增加，而理论上此处应该只有纯³He。这种效应是由于超流性和超导性这两种量子现象的独特结合导致的，从而观察到了一种类似低温整流的过程。氦同位素的整流不需要将温度降低到低于λ转变温度，因此该过程可能比过滤更经济。此外，微型超导体也可用于提取氘，这样就可以用相同的方法获取³He - D聚变的两种关键成分。这种方法应该很容易扩大规模，并且可以在太空中使用（能量输入更少），因为作为未来能源关键同位素的³He在地球之外也有发现。
