Canadian Scientists Bind High-Temp Superconductor Components With Scotch Tape

First time accepted submitter halightw writes "Scotch tape really can fix anything according to a new study where it was used to induce super conductivity by taping two pieces of material together. A "proximity effect" occurs when a superconducting material is able to induce superconducting behavior in a second material — a semiconductor that does not typically enjoy superconductivity." All that and X-rays, too. Related: An anonymous reader writes "Scientist at University of Leipzig in Germany claim to have measured room-temperature superconducting in specially treated graphite grains. The measurements were reproduced independently before the announcement was made. More tests need to be done to verify the extent of superconductivity and whether the effect can be extended and scaled to be practical."

Comments

Sometimes

[symes]

Just because they might be at the cutting edge of scientific progress does not mean common household goods, that were once thought of as perhaps as innovative as superconductivity, cannot be useful. Maybe I am stretching things in this case, perhaps they should have used duct tape. Anyhow, there must be other examples of this kind of thing?

Re:Sometimes

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember the 2010 Nobel prize winners in physics also used scotch tape to produce graphene, by peeling layers of carbon off of graphite:
http://motherboard.vice.com/2010/10/7/physics-nobel-prize-winners-secret-scotch-tape--2

Re:Sometimes

[Sarten-X]

The glass slides in the experiment contained silica, the same common material in sand across the globe.

There hasn't been any press release yet, but I suspect the scientist's underwear was made of cotton. That's right, the age-old textile material cotton has now found new use in the field of scientific research!

Also, we're still waiting on confirmation that the building's electrical wiring contained copper, but there is speculation that it may have been contaminated by other metals, complicating the analysis.

Re:Sometimes

[i.am.delf]

I always thought that this was a pretty neat thing. http://science.slashdot.org/story/08/10/22/1757257/x-rays-emitted-from-ordinary-scotch-tape?sdsrc=rel Only works in a vacuum etc, but still pretty awesome.

Re:Sometimes

[virgnarus]

Maybe I am stretching things in this case, perhaps they should have used duct tape.

Looks like a job for the Possum Lodge Institute of Science and Technology.

Re:Sometimes

[bobcat7677]

The Possum Lodge Institute of Science and Technology would upgrade the super conductor to handle more current and be DIY by using Duct Tape and lantern batteries. http://periodictable.com/Stories/006.2/index.html

I can visualize Red Green demonstrating the project as I type this. Sure miss that show...

Re:Sometimes

[ryzvonusef]

Indeed.

Here is a youtube video that explains this in simple terms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PifL8bAybyc

Re:Sometimes

[NIK282000]

If the women don't find you handsome, they can at least find your scientific research to be be ground breaking!

Re:Sometimes

[only_human]

And peeling scotch tape in vacuum can release X-rays.

Irrelevant headline

[Sarten-X]

So the really interesting part of this story - that superconductivity can be induced in high-temperature materials that haven't been grown in proximity - is completely overshadowed by the tape that held the experiment together?

Fuck journalism.

Re:Irrelevant headline

[Meshach]

So the really interesting part of this story - that superconductivity can be induced in high-temperature materials that haven't been grown in proximity - is completely overshadowed by the tape that held the experiment together?

Fuck journalism.

You must be new here...

Re:Irrelevant headline

[timeOday]

You are very right. A superconductor that's workable on a large scale would probably tip power infrastructure globally towards electricity. Imagine a few hundred square miles of wind turbines in West Texas providing clean, affordable energy in California.

Re:Irrelevant headline

[BMOC]

So the really interesting part of this story - that superconductivity can be induced in high-temperature materials that haven't been grown in proximity - is completely overshadowed by the tape that held the experiment together?

Fuck journalism.

I think you mean... that superconductivity can be induced at high-temperatures in materials that haven't been grown in proximity... And yes I find that far more interesting than using tape to accomplish it. Generally superconductivity dislikes material boundaries. This is why crystal grain boundaries (paradoxically) help control superconductivity in thin-film YBCO and similar high-temp materials by preventing eddy vorticies from interfering with flow. I had no idea you could induce superconductivity in a different crystal through proximity. in fact all of the knowledge I have on the subject (I did my graduate thesis on YBCO thin films) tells me it shouldn't be possible.

Re:Irrelevant headline

[TheMathemagician]

Real journalism is expensive and no-one is willing to pay for news these days.

Re:Irrelevant headline

[Sarten-X]

That is what I meant. That sentence was mangled several times while revising, and apparently I posted a few revisions too early.

Technology-wise, this is an interesting discovery. It would have been equally interesting had the scientist used fly paper or chewing gum to hold the semiconductors together. Once upon a time, this site claimed to offer "news for nerds"... let's not water down the nerdy science with the lowest-common-denominator amazement that versatile materials have many uses.

Re:Irrelevant headline

[BMOC]

How do you induce superconductivity with a proximity effect? My understanding of the phenomenon is that it is basically a specific quantum state allowed to electrons that directly depends on crystal structure (hence the temperature dependence). This is not unlike semiconductors where we rely on a manipulated band-gap to effect alterations in the conductive properties. More interestingly, superconductivity generally doesn't exist where magnetic fields do (there are macroscopic exceptions, but physically when you get to the quantum-level that is the case). So if you put a superconductor next to any old material that can contain a magnetic field, you're essentially expelling all magnetic field into that other material. That presence should negate the ability to generate superconductivity in the other material, right?

So yeah, I'm really curious how you can induce superconductivity in another directly adjacent material that is not normally a superconductor. Or am I just reading something wrong?

Re:Irrelevant headline

[History's Coming To]

HUH?! DO YOU WANT THE SOURCE CODE TO THE UNIVERSE NOW?!

As a physicist by training, yes, that's exactly what I want.

Scotch Tape has been used before.

[Llynix]

Helped discover graphene:
http://science.energy.gov/news/in-focus/2011/03-25-11/

2nd Summary

[Bigby]

Is it just me or is the 2nd summary deserving of its own post? A room temperature superconductor, if found and practical/abundant, would be one of the greatest discoveries in science.

Re:2nd Summary

[Billy the Mountain]

Yep, totally agree. the scotch tape superconductivity is helping superconductivity work at 80 Kelvin. The Carbon soaked in water, then dried is superconducting at 300 fucking kelvin. No scotch tape required! The cool thing about this is, if true, you could verify it in your kitchen.

Re:2nd Summary

[MozeeToby]

Well, the high temp super conductor research is extremely speculative and not at all practical. Thats not to say it isn't interesting and doesn't raise interesting questions, it is and it does.

The first problem is the practicality. The superconductivity they are reporting happens where two tiny grains of graphite meet (the soaking and baking part is, essentially, just to get them to meet in the right way, though I suppose trapped water molecules could also play a roll). Disturbing that interface destroys the superconductivity. There's no way to wire two points together using this effect, which makes it essentially useless from a practicality standpoint.

Which leads directly to the research's speculative nature. They can't wire two points together (not even tiny, tiny lengths) so there's no way to actually measure the resistance. They are claiming superconductivity based on an observed phase transition in magnetic properties when a field is applied. The transition they see is consistent with superconductivity, but most people wouldn't call it a silver bullet, "yes we are absolutely sure" kind of evidence. It could be some other effect we don't know about, in which case - NEATO! something new to study, or it could be superconductivity, in which case - NEATO! we've proved room temperature superconductors are empirically possible, we have an example to study which might pave the way.

Re:2nd Summary

[MozeeToby]

The cool thing about this is, if true, you could verify it in your kitchen.

Not really, the superconductive spots are tiny, far too tiny to actually measure resistance across. The researchers are claiming superconductivity based on magnetic effects, which while very interesting, isn't exactly something you'd do in your kitchen.

Re:2nd Summary

[Khyber]

I don't think we'd want LEDs that are superconducting. That might lead to very little light emission as we need the power to be lost to electron holes to generate photons. What we'd ideally want are LEDs that are better at converting energy into light. Superconductivity seems counter-intuitive to that.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but since we've never had superconducting LEDs, we don't know how they'd react.

Now super-conducting diodes, those would be awesome. Much better control of power flow. Could we even build a superconducting diode, given its nature?

Re:2nd Summary

[ChrisMaple]

A path from this to practical room temperature superconductivity, though speculative, is obvious. Fuse buckytubes every hundred atoms or so. Anneal in hydrogen or water or whatever. The fusing holds the tubes in a fixed spatial relation, and where they touch between fused points superconductivity occurs. Braid the stuff together in long ropes, and "Voila!" superconducting wire.

Re:2nd Summary

[MozeeToby]

Your buckyball still isn't superconducting, just the regions where the two buckyballs are interfacing. So the route has to go through a research phase where we figure out what is so special about the interface between the two, then another research phase to determine if it's physically possible to string those regions together in a way that produces superconductivity over a usable distance. Then another phase where we try to figure out how actually construct the design we came up with in the last time.

Yes, very interesting potentially earth changing in fact. But highly, highly speculative.

Hot date

[eclectro]

a semiconductor that does not typically enjoy superconductivity.

I didn't know semiconductors have fun.

In other news

[AwesomeMcgee]

Next up, Fision created with baking soda, and nobel prize winning physicists use tetris to complete the standard model.

Re:As opposed to?

[gstoddart]

Just messing with ya, canucks, no hard feelings!

No worries ... we don't really use moose droppings in (much) scientific research either. ;-)

Re:really, really want...

[mark-t]

Don't hold your breath. There are three phenomena associated with superconductivity: zero resistance, the Meissner effect, and a superconducting phase transition. Only the last one has been observed so far in the graphite-based superconductor. But it's my understanding that it's only the first two that are practically useful. Either of the first two effects observed on a macroscopic level at room temperatures or above, and that is tractable to scale, would be utterly revolutionary, and the long-term impact on industrialized society would likely be beyond anything we've yet conceived.

But yeah... I wouldn't hold my breath on this.

Re:If'n'ain't Scawtch ...

[albacrankie]

" I think I've heard one of my Scottish friends say something like that before"

You know my mum? :-) She thought it was poetic. (from Robert F. Burns, I believe)

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain
The best laid schemes o' Mice and Men
Gang aft a-glape
An lea'e us nought tae fix the pain
But fucking sellotape

Amazing!

[tool462]

Scotch tape! The greatest invention since this inanimate carbon rod!
*scientist turns off TV in disgust*
"Aww, Dad! They were going to show some close-ups of the tape!"

The abstract on the work from Leipzig

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Here is the abstract from the work done in Leipzig. Also if you happen to have access to Wiley Online Library or Wiley InterScience you can read the full publication here, I don't so I am not sure if that gets you all the way there or not.

Re:Don't forget the

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Essential tools:

Duct Tape - For when something moves and shouldn't
WD-40 - For when something should move and won't
Hammer - For everything else

So, basically, lead pencil supercomputing?

[WillAffleckUW]

So, in other words, they shredded some pencil leads on scotch tape and called it superconducting at room temperature?