Scientists Create Room Temperature Superconductor 380
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.""
Umm... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:5, Informative)
"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."
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:5, Informative)
Though in any event characterizing the behavior of high-pressure materials is valuable.
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Informative)
Because you can maintain a given pressure without the continual input of energy. Temperature (in either direction) has the annoying habit of doing its best to match that of the ambient environment.
Not to mention the fact that SiH4 autoignites at room temperature.
In the presence of oxygen, yes... Fortunately, you can buy small glass containers that maintain an anoxic environment at four for a dollar, under the name "light bulbs".
Pressure is often more expensive to safely maintain.
Don't think in terms of working with compressed gasses - Think of something more like a propane tank, where once you have it in there, it just sits there and doesn't really take a whole lot of maintenance. Keep it out of the sun and avoid mechanical stresses, and it will stay compressed and not do nasty things like burning/exploding for decades.
Re:Please hold your breath and run... (Score:2, Informative)
This is NOT room temperature superconductivity! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Applications? (Score:2, Informative)
The biggest issue right now in most maglev is the energy required to cool the wires in the tracks.
Re:In related news (Score:5, Informative)
(Current best is a little worse than -300F, and fairbanks is not quite so cold, with a record of -66F).
So if they invented a room temperature superconductor, the world would in fact be quite thrilled at such a major breakthrough.
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This is NOT room temperature superconductivity! (Score:5, Informative)
The money quote from the paper:
Re:Its a bomb (Score:5, Informative)
Silane explodes with considerable violence on exposure to air.
The best part? It's only *mostly* pyrophoric in air. *Sometimes* it waits a little while and accumulates a nice big cloud first, rather than flaring the instant it starts leaking.
Also: I understand that silanes are VERY toxic. (Score:3, Informative)
Also: I hear silanes (beyond n=1) are VERY toxic.
Back in my undergraduate days my chemistry teaching fellow was doing research on them. He claimed that the ones he was working on were so toxic that if you could smell them you had already exceeded the fatal dose.
(Now he might have been feeding me and the rest of the class a line of bull. But I wasn't about to argue with him. It WAS his thesis project, which implies that he should know what he was talking about. And he DID grade the class, after all... B-) )
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:4, Informative)
Cold is not a thing, it is the absence of something (heat). Heat, on the other hand, exists, and enters from all directions.
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:1, Informative)
"Silicon makes up 25.7% of the earth's crust by weight, and is the second most abundant element, exceeded only by oxygen. It is found largely as silicon oxides such as sand (silica), quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint, jasper and opal. Silicon is found also in minerals such as asbestos, feldspar, clay and mica."
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Si/key.html [webelements.com]
Re:Its a bomb (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Applications? (Score:5, Informative)
Doesn't sound like we're there yet. (Score:2, Informative)
Zienth
Re:Its a bomb (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:5, Informative)
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)
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:3, Informative)
Since convection is one of the three heat transfer mechanisms, then movement of cold mass and subsequent dilution with a warmer mass, viz. cold coming in, is a valid description of heat transfer.
Re:In related news (Score:3, Informative)
offtopic response to sig FF plushie back (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Informative)
There is both more and less than meets the eye (Score:5, Informative)
The original article [sciencemag.org] 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.
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How much pressure? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Room-pressure? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:So what (Score:4, Informative)
So even with superconducting transmission lines, you still have the incentive to up the voltage as much as possible to increase the power carrying capability of a single line.