31–40 of 74 posts
room temperature superconductors are inevitable, all matter is conductive and photo active in some way or another,and conduction is one of the non optional components of reality, so the number of possible compounds that might superconduct is huge and now that there apear to be multiple mechanisms that superconduction can function from, means that the search will begin in earnist its a multi trillion dollar app
Is a 400C superconductor also inevitable?
Wow. Go over to [1] and read the papers. This is good stuff. When someone finds new physics, interesting things result. Tungsten disulfide/boron nitride superconductors? That's a new direction. This article describes a new research result as a new research result, not as "trillion dollar industry by 2027". That helps credibility. [1] https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/long-ju/
As someone who knows nothing about this, how is something like "Tungsten disulfide/boron nitride" selected? Is it based on some models? Or, is it more of a random walk?
One thing that goes unmentioned about room temperature superconductors is that they store energy as well. U = (B2/(2u0))V. 2u0 is about 2.5E-6N/A2 So a 1m3 7T magnetic field would be about 20MJ or 7KWh. That doesn't sound like much, but collapse times could be microsec to generate GW of EM.
Wow. Go over to [1] and read the papers. This is good stuff. When someone finds new physics, interesting things result. Tungsten disulfide/boron nitride superconductors? That's a new direction. This article describes a new research result as a new research result, not as "trillion dollar industry by 2027". That helps credibility. [1] https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/long-ju/
As someone who knows nothing about this, how is something like "Tungsten disulfide/boron nitride" selected? Is it based on some models? Or, is it more of a random walk?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know we've got cuprates, superconductors formed with copper oxide, useful up to 133Kelvin, higher than Nitrogen cooling's capability of 77K. I've read of them being used in wind turbines and particle accelerators, as well as concepts for fusion reactors. Your comment makes it sound like they have insufficient field tolerance / current characteristics though. I don't think I've heard about Cuprates at all recently.
Cuprates are also brittle ceramics so they’re difficult to shape and larger pieces and assemblies tend to run into issues with grain boundaries that interfere with superconductivity, so there’s a lot of practical issues. The classic superconductors are very low temperature but are much easier to cast.
The great thing about watching advances in superconductors is that any day we could discover the first true practical room temp superconductor and that one day changes the world immensely. I personally think we are likely to find one in the next 5-10 years, but that estimate is based on nothing but hope and optimism on my part.
I'm not a believer in that timeline. There's a large distance between superconductivity in the lab and commercial application (since you specified "changes the world immensely"). E.g. MRIs still use NiTi (critical temperature of ~10 kelvins), discovered in 1962, for a number of reasons (this is in spite of MgB2 having a critical T of ~39k, ReBCO with a critical T of ~90k, and BSCCO with a critical T of ~108k): > In t…
Wow. Go over to [1] and read the papers. This is good stuff. When someone finds new physics, interesting things result. Tungsten disulfide/boron nitride superconductors? That's a new direction. This article describes a new research result as a new research result, not as "trillion dollar industry by 2027". That helps credibility. [1] https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/long-ju/
As someone who knows nothing about this, how is something like "Tungsten disulfide/boron nitride" selected? Is it based on some models? Or, is it more of a random walk?
A large part of the field of 2D materials is just trying stuff.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the most valuable applications it is also "good enough" to find a superconductor that can be cooled with cheap liquid nitrogen and retain the magnetic field tolerance, current-carrying capacity, and thermal stability of a superconductor cooled with expensive liquid helium. Some so-called "high temperature" superconductors begin superconducting at liquid-nitrogen temperature or higher. However in real life applica…
Data point: liquid nitrogen is cheaper than milk.
One thing that goes unmentioned about room temperature superconductors is that they store energy as well. U = (B2/(2u0))V. 2u0 is about 2.5E-6N/A2 So a 1m3 7T magnetic field would be about 20MJ or 7KWh. That doesn't sound like much, but collapse times could be microsec to generate GW of EM.
The great thing about watching advances in superconductors is that any day we could discover the first true practical room temp superconductor and that one day changes the world immensely. I personally think we are likely to find one in the next 5-10 years, but that estimate is based on nothing but hope and optimism on my part.