Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

arxiv.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 906 posts

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#131

Post by zenexer »

coolspot wrote: post #121
sheepscreek wrote: post #48

One of the authors in a related paper[1] is Hyun-Tak Kim. He has many publications in peer-reviewed journals[2]. One even has > 1500 citations[3]. I can't tell if there is a catch anywhere, this seems pretty legitimate. Also, unlike some previous claims that required sophisticated setup to reproduce, this seems dead simple. I think we will hear from other researchers very soon. 1. Superconductor Pb10-xCux(PO4)6O show…

> Superconductor Pb10-xCux(PO4)6O showing levitation at room temperature and atmospheric pressure Is it late April Fools joke? It can’t be true. Edit: I am not surprised it levitates. I am astonished by how much it will reshape our world if it is real room-temp and ambient-pressure superconductor. Also is easy to produce. Just too good to be true.

Superconductors will typically levitate if placed above a magnet, and vice versa. Magnets are weird--superconductors even more so. I assume that's what they were referring to?

Edit: Judging by Fig 4, which has a large object conspicuously labeled "magnet", that's probably what they're referring to.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#132

Post by Maxion »

lokl wrote: post #19

Will they invite a wide range of experts to publicly test their material?

This comes accross as very passive-aggressive.

Researchers come to a conclusion and make a paper, this is exactly how it is done.

Others can try to replicate their results, the paper is very explicit with what they've done.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#133

Post by traverseda »

bilsbie wrote: post #109
traverseda wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Superconductors are basically perfectly conductive wire. Wires that transfer 100% of power over arbitrary distances and that don't heat up. Obviously there are limits, you can't put arbitrary power over a hair thin filament but as long as you're under that limit you get perfect efficiency. MRI machines can be made a lot simpler as you no longer need to use liquid nitrogen to cool the superconductors. MRI machines cou…

What kind of energy density could we get using it for energy storage? Maybe it’s competitive with batteries if you don’t need any cooling?

Like 1-10 wh/kg from what I've seen. Probably better off building a ring around the planet so we can just always have solar panels lit up somewhere.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#134

Post by Workaccount2 »

bilsbie wrote: post #109
traverseda wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Superconductors are basically perfectly conductive wire. Wires that transfer 100% of power over arbitrary distances and that don't heat up. Obviously there are limits, you can't put arbitrary power over a hair thin filament but as long as you're under that limit you get perfect efficiency. MRI machines can be made a lot simpler as you no longer need to use liquid nitrogen to cool the superconductors. MRI machines cou…

What kind of energy density could we get using it for energy storage? Maybe it’s competitive with batteries if you don’t need any cooling?

Superconductors are a transferring energy technology, not a storing energy technology. Although they would likely augment the efficiency of storage technologies.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#135

Post by floxy »

intrasight wrote: post #87

The Sagan standard is the adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (a concept abbreviated as ECREE). But one can hope such evidence is forthcoming. And if it is, then short the oil majors.

Regular evidence will suffice. If people can make the material and levitate a small permanent magnet above the sample at room temperature, that will be sufficient.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#136

Post by nine_k »

danbruc wrote: post #31

After skimming the paper, it reads like a legitimate paper even though I have zero expertise in the area. That it is in Word instead of LaTeX makes it feel a bit less legitimate to me and they could of course always have some error in there setup. The most notable thing to me was that this was done in a thin film where structural defects are supposedly responsible for strain in the material which in turn enables the…

Thin layers can be stacked.

What's more interesting is flexibility. Current ceramic liquid-nitrogen-cooled superconductors are not flexible at all; they are brittle. This can be fine for a transmission line, but makes things hard for various coils.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#137

Post by bilsbie »

traverseda wrote: post #133
bilsbie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of energy density could we get using it for energy storage? Maybe it’s competitive with batteries if you don’t need any cooling?

Like 1-10 wh/kg from what I've seen. Probably better off building a ring around the planet so we can just always have solar panels lit up somewhere.

I wonder if that low number includes all the cooling equipment though?

But even if not it could be great for a capacitor alternative or stationary storage.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#138

Post by bilsbie »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #134
bilsbie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of energy density could we get using it for energy storage? Maybe it’s competitive with batteries if you don’t need any cooling?

Superconductors are a transferring energy technology, not a storing energy technology. Although they would likely augment the efficiency of storage technologies.

Actually both https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_ene...

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#139

Post by Kirby64 »

traverseda wrote: post #82
telltruth wrote: post #71

Could someone explain why is this world changing?

Superconductors are basically perfectly conductive wire. Wires that transfer 100% of power over arbitrary distances and that don't heat up. Obviously there are limits, you can't put arbitrary power over a hair thin filament but as long as you're under that limit you get perfect efficiency. MRI machines can be made a lot simpler as you no longer need to use liquid nitrogen to cool the superconductors. MRI machines cou…

A note about MRI machines: they use liquid helium, not liquid nitrogen. LN2 isn't cold enough. Being able to eliminate liquid helium would be huge, as helium is scarse and quite expensive. Its roughly 10x the cost of LN2 and only going to get more expensive.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#140

Post by nine_k »

floxy wrote: post #135
intrasight wrote: post #87

The Sagan standard is the adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (a concept abbreviated as ECREE). But one can hope such evidence is forthcoming. And if it is, then short the oil majors.

Regular evidence will suffice. If people can make the material and levitate a small permanent magnet above the sample at room temperature, that will be sufficient.

"Extraordinarily" may mean here "reproduced in 100 laboratories consistently", beyond any doubt.
Post reply on HN