Surprising Superconduction in Plutonium

jihema writes "Dr Strangelove would have liked this : a plutonium compound turns out to be a superconductor at relatively high temperature (18 K). The magnetic properties of this metal make this fact rather unexpected and contradicts the accepted theory on superconduction."

Comments

Re:18K relatively warm?

[jerde]

Right. Okay. Go read the article! (This is the correct response to 90% of the posts in this thread)

18K is relatively warm compared to plain-old superconducting metals. When superconductivity was discovered in 1911 occurring in Mercury, later in other metals as well, it was at only a few degrees Kelvin. 18K is relatively warm compared to that.

Half a century later, in 1986, we found ceramic compounds that would superconduct at much much higher temperatures. Those compounds superconduct by a different process, so they're dubbed Type 2 superconductors. (as opposed to Type 1 for metalic elements)

The article doesn't say -- or they probably don't even know for sure -- what type of superconductivity was observed in Plutonium. Or if they were using pure elemental Plutonium or some compound that contained it.

And finally, lots of other comments here make fun of how "useful" Plutonium is. Duh. It's not:

The discovery has no immediate practical value but is important because it adds a new dimension to the study of superconductivity, Stewart said.

"You can't make practical materials out of something as radioactive and chemically poisonous as plutonium," he said, "but John Sarrao and this collaborative team have made a big leap in understanding superconductivity from a fundamental point of view."

Basically, it means that superconductivity is still not completely understood -- this uncovers yet another twist, and will help to develop the theories further.

Secrets of the universe stuff, you know.

- Peter

Re:buying plutonium on the black market

[Mark of THE CITY]

The LAST thing one of these "random University professors" would do is buy Plutonium on the black market.

Of course; could you imagine putting this on a research grant?

Name: Plutonium
Qty: 100g
Vendor: mumble

:)