‘Tantalizing’ hints of room-temperature superconductivity
September 19, 2012
Scanning tunneling microscope image of graphite surface atoms (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Doped graphite may superconduct at more than 100 ºC (boiling point of water), according to Pablo Esquinazi and his colleagues at the University of Leipzig, Nature News reports.
Superconductors offer huge potential energy savings when used for electrical power transmission lines, for example, but until now have worked only at temperatures lower than about -110 °C. A superconductor can transmit electricity with zero resistance. At high temperatures (room temperature and above), superconductors promise to offer a major solution
Graphite, which consists of layers of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal lattices, can superconduct when doped with elements that provide it with additional free electrons. Calcium graphite, for example, superconducts at up to 11.5 kelvin (about -260 °C), and theorists have predicted that temperatures of up to 60 kelvin could be reached if enough free electrons were available.
Researchers in Germany recently also claimed a breakthrough at room temperature and above.
Comments (4)
by PirateRo
Actually, the load-bearing capability of the cable and its ability to carry a load are two distinct things. We are talking of systems – more than one component working in cooperation to make something work.
Also, why expose the infrastructure? The money saved using something like this could easily pay to bury the existing infrastructure in a system of intelligently designed tracks following the road surface, which could then also be converted into a solar collection system (the intelligent roads we keep hearing about).
This cannot come fast enough.
by Bri
A breakthrough in transmition cables could conceivably make solar and wind energy available for longer periods of the day.
by Gorden Russell
If it works, the northeast coast could run air conditioning on a hot July night with power from the desert southwest.
by Gorden Russell
This will be great news if they can make a graphite cable that doesn’t crack when it sways in the wind.