The Search for Room-Temperature Superconductivity is Continuing (acm.org) 29
Communications of the ACM checks in on the quest for room-temperature superconductivity. "Time and time again, physicists have announced breakthroughs that were later found to be irreproducible, in error, or even fraudulent."
But "The issue is once again simmering..." In January 2024, a group of researchers from Europe and South America announced they had achieved a milestone in room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductivity. Using Scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite with surface wrinkles, which formed line defects, they observed a room-temperature superconducting state. Their paper, published in the journal Advanced Quantum Technologies, has gained considerable attention in the scientific world... Although many in the scientific community remain incredulous, if valid, this development could help solve a key piece of the puzzle: how defects and wrinkles in a material such as scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) affect electrical properties and behavior within superconductive systems...
"We haven't reached a point where there is a clear path to room temperature superconductivity because researchers are either overly enthusiastic or deceptive," said Elie Track, chief technology officer at HYPRES, Inc., an Elmsford, NY, company that develops and commercializes superconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. "People fail to check measurements and others can't reproduce their results. There is a lot of carelessness and sloppy science surrounding the space because people are so eager to achieve success." The team conducting research into scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite believe their discovery could tilt the search for practically useful room-temperature superconductivity in a favorable direction. They reported they were able to achieve one-dimensional superconductivity in pyrolytic graphite at temperatures as great as 300 degrees Kelvin (26.85 degrees Celsius), and at ambient pressure. Vinokur and physicist Maria Cristina Diamantini described the development as the first "unambiguous experimental evidence" for a global room temperature zero-resistance state. If true, the team's research could illuminate a path to new superconducting materials....
Others remain skeptical, however. For example Alan Kadin [a technical consultant in the field and a former professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rochester] pointed out that one of the key researchers for the project, Yakov Kopelevich, has been working in the field for two decades and, so far, "The results are not reproducible in other labs...Until someone else independently reproduces these results, I think we can safely ignore them," he argued...
Yet as scientists continue to bang away at the superconducting challenge — including the possibility of using generative AI to explore materials and techniques — optimism is growing that a major breakthrough could occur.
But "The issue is once again simmering..." In January 2024, a group of researchers from Europe and South America announced they had achieved a milestone in room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductivity. Using Scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite with surface wrinkles, which formed line defects, they observed a room-temperature superconducting state. Their paper, published in the journal Advanced Quantum Technologies, has gained considerable attention in the scientific world... Although many in the scientific community remain incredulous, if valid, this development could help solve a key piece of the puzzle: how defects and wrinkles in a material such as scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) affect electrical properties and behavior within superconductive systems...
"We haven't reached a point where there is a clear path to room temperature superconductivity because researchers are either overly enthusiastic or deceptive," said Elie Track, chief technology officer at HYPRES, Inc., an Elmsford, NY, company that develops and commercializes superconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. "People fail to check measurements and others can't reproduce their results. There is a lot of carelessness and sloppy science surrounding the space because people are so eager to achieve success." The team conducting research into scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite believe their discovery could tilt the search for practically useful room-temperature superconductivity in a favorable direction. They reported they were able to achieve one-dimensional superconductivity in pyrolytic graphite at temperatures as great as 300 degrees Kelvin (26.85 degrees Celsius), and at ambient pressure. Vinokur and physicist Maria Cristina Diamantini described the development as the first "unambiguous experimental evidence" for a global room temperature zero-resistance state. If true, the team's research could illuminate a path to new superconducting materials....
Others remain skeptical, however. For example Alan Kadin [a technical consultant in the field and a former professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rochester] pointed out that one of the key researchers for the project, Yakov Kopelevich, has been working in the field for two decades and, so far, "The results are not reproducible in other labs...Until someone else independently reproduces these results, I think we can safely ignore them," he argued...
Yet as scientists continue to bang away at the superconducting challenge — including the possibility of using generative AI to explore materials and techniques — optimism is growing that a major breakthrough could occur.
My humble proposal (Score:3, Funny)
Try a different room
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Try a different room
Or a different planet. Room temperature superconductors would be easy on Pluto.
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Try a different room
Or a different planet. Room temperature superconductors would be easy on Pluto.
Yup. Just saw the NOVA episode, "The Planets: Ice Worlds" and the average temperature on Pluto is -390F. Building a room there will be complicated though.
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Make up your mind please: first you say "planet" then "Pluto".
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Actually that makes me wonder, since the temperature of deep space is about 2.7K .. iron meteorites/asteroids floating out there must be superconducting. If there say selenium and a small amount of light from stars, that's solar panels .. so there may be charged up superconducting meteors out there with levitating particles around it.
Graphite? (Score:3)
>Using Scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite with surface wrinkles
They used a chewed-up school pencil.
It's not even an argument (Score:2)
> "The results are not reproducible in other labs...Until someone else independently reproduces these results, I think we can safely ignore them," he argued
That's just common sense and the most practical approach given the historical and current state of superconductor research.
Copper is good enough... really. (Score:2)
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Copper does the job.
The 3500 km HVDC line from Xinjiang to Anhui carries 12 GW of power and loses 1.5 GW to copper resistance.
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Seems like the energy should be created closer to where it is consumed.
How do you move desert winds to a rice paddy?
Or Xinjiang sunshine to where it gets dark two hours earlier?
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I thought the golden goose of superconductors is repelling 100% of magnetic flux?? It was supposed to be the holy grail of magnetic levitation.
Re:Copper is good enough... really. (Score:5, Informative)
Except where it doesn't.
The quest for room temperature superconductors is really driving by the power industry. First, pushing power down long power lines does incur loss - and while it's generally very small - well under 10% (usually under 5%) from when its generated to when you get to use it, it's still a huge amount. Even 5% of a gigawatt-hour is still 50 megawatt-hours of loss. And it's lost as heat.
But as a superconductor, it would have two benefits - first, that loss just goes away. Just magical. Second, your wires can suddenly carry a heck of a lot more current - once superconductivity kicks in, the ampacity of the wire jumps by orders of magnitude. So suddenly the wire goes from being able to carry megawatts of power to carrying gigawatts without changing a single thing. (The limiting factor is actually the electron flux is so high that there's not enough space for them because of the atomic nucleus)
Now, for some runs, it's actually economical to do this - to use a high temperature superconductor to carry the power, envelop it with cooling so it remains superconducting and to keep it chilled is still far cheaper than running traditional copper or aluminum wires.
Re:Copper is good enough... really. (Score:5, Interesting)
Even someone like me who has wired a RV with solar would love superconducting wires. That way, I don't either have to choose between expensive, thick copper, or silver clad copper and 12 volts, or up the voltage to 24 or 48 volts which allows for skinnier wires, but can give you a wake-up zap if you are not careful. The voltage drop is definitely an issue. It would be nice to replace 00 gauge wire with 14 gauge wire, both creating a lightness of setup, and not having to run a volt or two higher to compensate for voltage drop.
Overall, it would be a ton of energy savings, even at the level of single watts, compared to megawatts, and it means less heat to deal with.
If used for motor windings, it might be able to allow for much smaller, more powerful motors, perhaps on the scale of what was mentioned in the Foundation series.
Superconductors not Problem-free (Score:3)
The quest for room temperature superconductors is really driving by the power industry.
Yes but I remain a little sceptical that, even if we eventually find a room temperature superconductor, it will be practical for large scale energy transmission. First, it may not be a metal - liquid nitrogen temperature superconductors are ceramic and it is really hard to make a wire out of them.
Then there is the problem that superconductors can undergo a very rapid phase transition to non-superconducting. This can happen either due to exceeding temperature or a field critical values. When this happens
Three things are certain in life (Score:1)
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Death, taxes, and no such thing as room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductivity.
fusion energy too? It is 10 year away, right?
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Fusion energy is 8 light-minutes away.
Thinking two steps ahead. (Score:2)
I'm looking for body temperature superconductors.
Higher is better (Score:2)
Room temperature or not, it's still a case of the higher the better. You get so much more working headroom that it's worth searching for anything at higher temperatures.
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Room temperature or not, it's still a case of the higher the better.
Yes, but there are important thresholds for cheaper coolants.
Liquid nitrogen boils at 77K and is way cheaper than liquid helium.
At 195K, you can use carbon dioxide.
At 250K, you can use R134a Freon (the same stuff your fridge uses).
Above 273K, you can use water.
LNG (Re:Higher is better) (Score:3)
Been thinking about this for a LONG time! From Wikipedia:
Boiling point for pure CH4 is 161.5 C (258.7 F; 111.6 K) which a LNG liquefaction train is designed to achieve (why the other stuff needs to be removed).
From Wikipedia list of High Temp Superconductors:
For Hg-1201, Hg-1212 and Hg-1223, the values of Tc are 94, 128, and the record value at ambient pressure 134 K (139 C)
No one has commercialized these mercury-con
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The 3300 km HVDC line from Xinjiang to Anhui is the biggest in the world by both length and capacity.
It dissipates 1.5 GW of heat over 3300 km, roughly 500 watts per meter.
The wholesale price of electricity in China is 8 cents/kwh.
So, the loss per meter costs 4 cents an hour, $1 per day, $350 per year, and $14,000 over the 40-year projected lifespan.
If you can't build and run a cooling system for less than that per meter and still cover the cost of the superconductor, then it's not cost-effective.
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Why a "but"? Shouldn't that be "because". Or did you misread what I wrote?
Obligatory MRI Post (Score:3)
Need more the just Room Temperature (Score:2)
RTSC would mean no more helium.
Not necessarily. We already have liquid nitrogen temperature superconductors and that did not remove the need for helium cooled magnets because it did not have a very high critical field and, as a ceramic, it is really hard to make a coil from it. What you want is room temperature superconductor that is metallic (or at least ductile so you can make wires) with a high critical field. Not just any room temperature superconductor will do.
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That's out of date. They are already winding wire (tape to be more precise) looking "high-temperature" superconductors these days. My guess is MRIs are going to get cheaper. It just takes a while for the legacy costs to be amortised first.