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Scientists Create Room Temperature Superconductor

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-that-cold-anymore dept.

StarEmperor writes "A team of Canadian and German scientists have fabricated a room-temperature superconductor, using a highly compressed silicon-hydrogen compound. According to the article,"The researchers claim that the new material could sidestep the cooling requirement, thereby enabling superconducting wires that work at room temperature.""

21 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. Room-pressure? by atomicthumbs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it also a room-pressure superconductor?

    --
    http://pinopsida.com
    1. Re:Room-pressure? by Zymergy · · Score: 5, Informative

      NOPE. Do not pass Go Do not collect $200.

      "Instead of super-cooling the material, as is necessary for conventional superconductors, the new material is instead super-compressed. The researchers claim that the new material could sidestep the cooling requirement, thereby enabling superconducting wires that work at room temperature."

    2. Re:Room-pressure? by moderatorrater · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, but I suspect that this will still be a huge breakthrough, because we're generally better at keeping things pressurized than at keeping them cold. We have many, many static, high-pressure system with high reliability, but not that many super-cooled ones because cooling requires active energy expenditures.

    3. Re:Room-pressure? by Gewalt · · Score: 5, Informative

      Cold is not a thing, it is the absence of something (heat). Heat, on the other hand, exists, and enters from all directions.

      Heat is not a thing. Thermal Energy, on the other hand, exists, and dissipates in all directions. (Heat is defined as the dissipation of thermal energy)
      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    4. Re:Room-pressure? by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cold is not a thing, it is the absence of something (heat). Heat, on the other hand, exists, and enters from all directions.

      Heat is not a thing. Thermal Energy, on the other hand, exists, and dissipates in all directions. (Heat is defined as the dissipation of thermal energy)
      Thermal energy is not a thing. Molecules do, however, have kinetic energy which they tend to partially transfer to other molecules with less kinetic energy when they randomly collide.
    5. Re:Room-pressure? by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's turtles all the way down

  2. Umm... by linuxboredom · · Score: 5, Informative

    So, how exactly is this a good alternative to colder superconductors? Pressure is often more expensive to safely maintain. Not to mention the fact that SiH4 autoignites at room temperature.

  3. Room temperature superconductors? by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 5, Funny

    Like Leonard Bernstein, for instance?

  4. In related news by 427_ci_505 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Researchers in Fairbanks, Alaska have just created a room temperature superconductor.

  5. Its a bomb by slashdotlurker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Silane explodes with considerable violence on exposure to air. Plus, how are you going to put conductors under great pressure ? The main attractiveness of super conductors lies in long distance electrical supply lines. Unless they come up with a way to hermetically seal the "wire" over distances of hundreds of miles with a seal that can withstand high pressure compressors dotting the landscape (unlikely), this very interesting advance will remain just that - very interesting.

    All not counting whether it is more energy efficient to run superconductors with energy hog compressors or to just stick to what we have, hopefully realizing practical room temperature superconductivity.

    1. Re:Its a bomb by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Funny

      Silane explodes with considerable violence on exposure to air
      Cool, I get to mark two things off my Star Trek checklist in a single day:

      * Room-temperature superconductors
      * Computers that explode violently
      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  6. Please hold your breath and run... by Detritus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Silane is pyrophoric and boils at 161 K. It may be a while before this leads to practical results.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  7. This is NOT room temperature superconductivity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm holding TFA (Science, 14 March 2008, pp. 1506-1509). The highest critical temperatures they observed, regardless of pressure, were around 17 Kelvin (between 96-120 GPa). These are interesting results because they are among the few measurements available to shed light on the behavior of dense hydrides at these pressures, and these materials might, if better understood, one day allow a room temperature superconductor to be made. This, however, is not it.

    1. Re:This is NOT room temperature superconductivity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
      Thanks for looking up the original paper (DOI: 10.1126/science.1153282). The EETimes reporter seems to be terribly confused.
      The money quote from the paper:

      On cooling, a typical metallic behavior of the resistance was observed and eventually becoming superconducting (SC) at Tc {approx} 7 K (Fig. 2B). Upon further compression, the sample became completely opaque at 76 GPa, and Tc increased, with pressure up to 17.5 K at 96 GPa and 17 K at 120 GPa (Fig. 2C). At higher pressures, Tc decreases to 8.8 K at 165 GPa and is then likely to increase again to 11.3 K at 192 GPa (Fig. 2C). The behavior of Tc between 90 GPa and 120 GPa is suggestive that higher values of critical temperature of superconductivity may be possible. However, uncontrollable change of pressure during sample loading (20) prohibited us from studying this regime in detail.
  8. Damn you samzenpus by vikstar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    God damn you for the headline "Scientists Create Room Temperature Superconductor". I almost fell of my chair in excitment. Then my climax was rapidly stolen when I read that it required high pressures. Next time, try to replace typical news sensationalistic headlines with pertinant headlines. In this case "Scientists Create Room Temperature but High Pressure Superconductor".

    --
    The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
  9. worth a read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You might find this worth a read in considering the future of science in the US.

  10. So what by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is absolutely awesome if they can get it into production, even in 20 years.
    • Efficient motors (think electric cars and perhaps even airplanes and boats);
    • Zero loss of power while sending it all over North America (or Europe, Asia, etc).
    • Heck, we are looking at hitting coppers limits. If this comes to be, then the use of copper will decrease and we will see a drop in price of that. The amount of copper that goes into large motors is pretty big.
    • Just thinking about it, it might even be used for electric storage.
    • Maglevs might become practical.
    Besides, think of where we were 20 years ago; roughly 20 years ago, physicists had found a way to increase the temp. Those wires are now being used for short distance tranmissions. This could change everything.
    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:So what by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Funny
      "This is absolutely awesome if they can get it into production, even in 20 years."

      No doubt. Think of the awesome stereo cables you could make with these!!!

      Superconducting speaker cables and interconnects....the audiophiles dream!!

      No wooden knob needed.

      :-)

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  11. Re:Applications? by Goaway · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, it is quite hard to cool things in space, if they generate any kind of heat. You can only radiate heat away - conduction and convection won't help you.

  12. Re:But... by SQLGuru · · Score: 5, Funny

    Combine the room-temp superconductor plus the motionless CPU cooler, throw in the fact that scientists success corrolates to beer (three stories from today), and you just might have colder beer.

    Layne

  13. There is both more and less than meets the eye by randolph · · Score: 5, Informative

    The more is that the researchers have shown that silane turns into a metal at very high pressures; while researchers have not managed to create metallic hydrogen, they have managed this. The less is that it's only a 17-degree Kelvin superconductor--not an extraordinary temperature--and the pressures involved are on the order of half a million atmospheres.

    The original article was published in Science on 14 March 2008; Vol. 319. no. 5869, pp. 1506 - 1509; DOI: 10.1126/science.1153282. Your local library can probably get you a copy; if you are at a university you may be able to access the online version.