Discovered: High-Temperature Non-Metal Magnet 29
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!"
Re:First Post (Score:1)
Interesting... (Score:1)
bucky ball?"
Just proves that if the results arn't what you expect, it doesn't mean it's useless...
Re:Interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)
They can fight many different types of nerve damage [wustl.edu], they may help treating cancer [redherring.com], they can be superconductors at high temperature [homeworkdatabase.com] (now imagine a bewolf cluster of these!), and lots more.
From The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ [cjfearnley.com]:
The exciting part of the discovery of C60 molecules is that they are only the third naturally occurring form of carbon to be found (graphite and diamond of course being the first two). C60 was first isolated from graphite (I think) in 1985.
As Paul Houle writes, C60 is formed in the shape of a geodesic sphere (like the panels of a soccer ball), hence the name ``buckminsterfullerene'' or ``buckyballs'' for short. Each carbon has three sp2 hybrid orbitals and the fourth electron of each carbon resides in a delocalized pi orbital that ranges over the entire ball (like benzene).
The physical appearance of C60 is very much similar to graphite, as are some of its physical properties. C60, unlike graphite, can be dissolved in benzene to form a translucent amber solution.
Other developments of buckyballs:
1) Radicalization - Besides just the pure C60 form, researchers at Rice have added hydrogen molecules to the carbon junctures to form molecules such as C60H36. Also, work is progressing on making C60 radical groupings (similar to benzene -> phenol).
2) Property measurement - Although many of the properties of C60 are known, most of the properties of its compounds are still hazy.
3) Higher molecules - Other stable forms with greater numbers of carbons have been isolated as well, including C70, C72, and a couple of others I can't remember. All of these have geodesic shapes as classified by Buckminster Fuller and look like lopsided versions of the normal C60 molecule.
4) Ionization - One can trap metallic ions such as Fe++ and Mg++ in the cage of the C60 to make the molecule act as a very large ion.
5) Superconductivity - As far as I know, the 18K Tc for C60 is the correct figure. This of course is much lower than high-temperature superconductors, but this fact may be used in some way at a later date.
Buckminsterfullerene (C60) is becoming ever easier to get in quantity and shows many interesting optical properties. It stops light -- the brighter the light the more effectively it stops it. Nano and pico-second laser pulses are effectively and instantly opaqued by small quantities of C60. A helmet visor treated with fullerene will instantly block an incoming laser beam -- the stronger the ray, the faster the face glass turns dark (cooler than those ``photosensitive'' sunglasses) (Patterson AFB in Ohio is studying such applications). Many other optical properties of the fullerenes are under study.
However, C60 remains forty times more expensive than gold. As Smalley put it ``it's the yield, stupid'' -- i.e. the central issue facing fullerene researchers, in Smalley's opinion, is how to get more of it. The Smalley team approach of using parabolic mirrors to sun-generate fullerenes (to produce ``sunnyballs'') appears to be a potentially promising approach. Concentrated sunlight has less of the damaging frequencies in high-powered lasers that apparently to inhibit fullerene formation from vaporized carbon).
Fullerene is quite reactive and can be used as a building block in other structures. In some crystal formations, doped with potassium for example, it conducts electricity with no resistance (is a superconductor).
Re:Interesting... (Score:1, Troll)
What are fullerenes and buckyballs? [cjfearnley.com]
Re:Interesting... (Score:1)
Reasons why the Russians had it easy... (Score:1, Insightful)
(Note: see past Slashdot's re. large network in Europe and pretty much any other achievement not based in the US)
Re:Reasons why the Russians had it easy... (Score:1)
Russians seem to do pretty good with carbon.. As far as I know they are the only ones giving DeBeers a run for thier moneywith artifical diamonds..
so, no russian bashing for me.. they have enough problems.
Plus, it's cool that scientists who are probably drasticaly underfunded are coming up with stuff that the US labs haven't.
Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:2, Interesting)
Isn't a ceramic magnet a non-metallic room-temperature magnet?
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:1)
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:1)
Although I didn't read the article, ceramic magnets have existed throughout all time. The very first materials that human discovered to be magnets were Lodestones. These are indeed ceramic (i.e. non-metallic).
I'll read the article now, but the poster of this story is very inaccurate. But what do I know? I only have a Masters degree in Ceramics Engineering.
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:1)
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:2)
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:1)
Sure, Lodestone is a rock...
...that IS a ceramic!
...that is composed of Iron Ore...
Iron = metal
Iron ore = ceramic.
Since I am still outnumbered in my general conclusion, and dictionary.com is being used against me, allow me to quote Brady's "Materials Handbook, 14th edition":
So there you have it. Iron Ore is magnetite is FeO and Fe2O3... both of which are ceramic materials.
You sillies! It doesn't become a metal until it has been reduced... via a smelting process.
If anyone chooses to use dictionary.com for technical definitions, I would like to point out that teeth (another ceramic) are never molded and baked while the most common forms of plastics are molded and baked. Cookies are baked, while Ceramics are sintered
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:2)
The term "metal" can refer to any of a number of elements, Iron among them. "Metallic" refers to a substance of or containing metal, so anything containing iron qualifies as metallic. Ceramic magnets are made with ferrite elements, hence ceramic magnets are metallic.
Oh, and "sintered" means "pressed and baked", so the last paragraph really has no point. And teeth are not a ceramic, as teeth are not made of clay, mud, or similar materials. If you really wanted to get picky, you could go so far as to say that teeth and ceramic are related
Lodestone != ceramic (Score:1)
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:2, Informative)
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.
DOH! The link... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.acers.org/acers/aboutceramics.asp
Re:Ceramic Magnets at RadioShack? (Score:1, Funny)
Isocrystals? (Score:1)
Re:Isocrystals? (Score:1)
I love Buckyballs (Score:1)
Buckminster Fuller has got to have the least post-mortem rotational momentum of anyone with something named after them.
More information... (Score:2, Informative)
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.
This is not the first non metal magnet... (Score:2, Informative)