Applications

Liquid helium has a medical purpose as it is used as a cooling medium for magnets and processes used in MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.

Helium is used as a super coolant for cryogenic applications such as Magnet Resonance Imaging (MRI), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, particle accelerators, Large Hadron Collider, Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID), Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy (ESR), Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES), magnetohydrodynamic superconducting generators, power transmission, magnetic levitation transport, superconducting sensors, mass spectrometers, superconducting magnets, strong-field magnetic separator, toroidal field superconducting magnets for fusion reactors and other cryogenic research.

Helium cools low-temperature superconducting materials and low-temperature superconducting magnets to a temperature close to absolute zero so that the electrical resistance of superconductors drops abruptly to zero. The very low electrical resistance of superconductors enables the creation of more powerful magnetic fields. In the case of MRI equipment in hospitals, the more powerful magnetic field yields greater detail in the radiological image scans.

Helium is used as a super coolant because helium has the lowest melting and boiling points of any element helium does not solidify at atmospheric pressure and 0 K and helium is chemically inert. Furthermore, helium is superfluid below 2.2 Kelvin. Until now the unique property superfluidity is not exploited in any industrial application. Helium as a super coolant cannot be substituted in cryogenic applications if temperatures below 17 Kelvin are required.