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Discovered: High-Temperature Non-Metal Magnet
Wonko42 writes: "Russian scientists who were trying to produce high-temperature superconductors accidentally created the first non-metallic magnet that is magnetic at room temperature (and up to 200 degrees Celsius). Previously, non-metallic magnets tended to lose their magnetism at -255 degrees Celsius. The magnet was created by superheating and pressurizing buckyballs to join them together as a sheet. The technology is ideal for use in magnetic storage devices, and could also be used in chips. The material is also photo-sensitive, which means it could be used as an optical storage medium as well. Yay for buckyballs!"
The term comes from the Greek word for "pottery", which in turn comes from the Sanskrit word for "burnt stuff."
The following site has a nice chart showing various compositions of some ceramic magnets. Check the following official folks for the full scoop.
http://www.acers.org/acers/aboutceramics.asp
Good links for additional info:8 .h tml
http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-12/p1
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/5/10/11
http://www.nature.com (search for vol. 413 p. 716)
A lot less hype here. Worth a read. Unless a lot has changed in the last couple month, this looks not at all promissing for data storage. Squareness of the hysteresis loop is way too low. Just a good way to get press attention.
A point of clarification from the first link:
It's not that the magnet is non-metallic, but that it contains no metallic atoms. Lodestones are not metallic, but contain iron. This is supposedly pure carbon. Definitions of ceramics can be debated some other day.
These guys in Nebraska did it. They made plastic magnets, just not very high yield yet.
"Da ist ein Technölüst in mein Unterpanten!"