A breakthrough in a new superconductor could transform the way the tech industry uses electrical energy and improve nuclear fusion.
US scientists say they have produced the first commercial material that eliminates the loss of energy when electricity moves along a wire.
According to the WSJ, this promises to be a breakthrough that can extend battery life, use the grid more efficiently, and improve high-speed trains.
The study belongs to a team of scientists at the University of Rochester. According to the report, they have created a new superconductor that can operate at room temperature and at much lower pressures than previously discovered superconducting materials.
Normally, current encounters resistance as it moves through the conductors, almost like a form of friction. This causes energy to be lost as heat.
A century ago, physicists discovered materials that are now known as superconductors , where resistance seems to magically disappear.
However, a huge drawback of this material is that it needs to be extremely cooled, to about -195 degrees Celsius and subjected to extreme pressure to work.
It is this that limits the practical application of superconducting materials. For decades, scientists have been near a standstill in the search for a superconductor that can operate at room temperature.
Testing of superconducting materials at room temperature by the research team. (Photo: University of Rochester).
In fact, the University of Rochester’s groundbreaking study of a new superconductor that can operate at room temperature, recently published in the journal Nature, is not new.
In 2020, Ranga Dias, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the University of Rochester, who led this research previously published a paper claiming to have produced two similar superconducting materials in previous papers. The paper was published in the journal Nature.
However, this article was quickly retracted by the editors after many other scientists questioned some of the data during the research.
Specifically, in the 2020 study, Dias’ team reports that they have created a superconductor made up of a combination of hydrogen, sulfur, and carbon that operates at approximately room temperature.
Interestingly, this superconducting material only becomes active after being heated with a laser and crushed between the ends of two diamonds to a pressure greater than that found at the center of the Earth.
Meanwhile, for the new study, the researchers tweaked the superconductor’s formula by adding nitrogen and a rare earth metal called lutetium to hydrogen instead of sulfur and carbon.
Once again, the experiment continued to heat and press with Diamond anvil cell – technology to create extreme artificial pressure using two diamonds. For comparison, that’s about 10 times the pressure created at the bottom of the deepest trenches of Earth’s oceans.
The team named the resulting material “red matter” after observing that the color of the superconducting material changes from blue to pink to red when compressed. Dr Dias said the moniker was inspired by the fictional matter that created the black hole in the Star Trek blockbuster.
The researchers found that the “red matter” can exist at a temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 145,000 psi, or about 1/360 of the pressure in the Earth’s core .
The color of superconducting materials changes from blue to pink to red when compressed. (Photo: Ranga Dias).
Compared to the 2020 study, the material was able to withstand an extra 10 degrees Fahrenheit and reduce the pressure to about 1/1000.
“This result is a breakthrough for the scientific community, created by Dr. Dias, who has always had a keen sense of chemistry,” said Stanley Tozer, a research scientist at the laboratory. The University of Florida commended the team.
While it’s still a long way from the pressure that humans can withstand at sea level, around 15 psi, Dr Tozer says it’s still “in the range that engineers can jump in and out” create a commercially viable product”.
Tozer also claims that thanks to this breakthrough, superconducting materials are now commercially accessible.
It is possible for engineers and materials scientists to reach pressure levels of around 145,000 psi using specialized tools and techniques related to chip manufacturing or diamond synthesis.
Superconducting matter can function under normal conditions, which the team dubbed “red matter”. (Photo: WSJ).
“Within the next five years, we will have devices containing components made of superconducting materials. That means your phone or laptop will use less power to operate without losing energy in the form of heat, resulting in longer battery life. Alternatively, the same components could also be incorporated into electric vehicle batteries,” said Ashkan Salamat, study co-author at the University of Nevada.
According to Dr Salamat, superconductors that operate at everyday temperatures and pressures could also help solve problems like climate change.
Salamat gives the example of a power grid made of superconducting matter that can store solar or wind energy for an indefinite period of time, and transmit it over long distances without loss.
The US Energy Information Administration has estimated that an average of 5% of electricity is lost during transmission and distribution in the country from 2017 to 2021.
As a result, more efficient energy storage and transmission will mean less energy use, leading to a reduced carbon footprint.
Besides, another important application also highlighted by Dr. Salamat is that superconductors could pave the way for better, cheaper machines to conduct nuclear fusion reactions, which could lead to nuclear fusion. It has long been considered a clean and virtually limitless source of energy.
Superconductors could pave the way for better, cheaper machines to conduct nuclear fusion, which has long been considered a clean and near-infinite source of energy. (Photo: Zuma Press).
Basically, nuclear fusion is the process of generating heat and light from the Sun or other stars. More specifically, it is light atoms colliding with each other to create heavier atoms, releasing a large amount of energy in the process, according to the Guardian.
The huge amount of energy released in this process has the great advantage of not generating any radioactive waste or greenhouse gas emissions.
Many fusion machines rely on magnetic fields to limit the reaction, and superconductors can all generate some of the strongest magnetic fields. The problem, however, is that keeping those superconductors cool requires very bulky and expensive devices.
Dr Dias said a superconductor like “red matter” , which can generate a huge magnetic field at room temperature, could be a game changer in the next few decades for construction efforts. build a fusion reactor.