Archive for category Superconductors

SMES: New Energy Storing Technology by ABB Using Electromagnetic Fields and Superconductivity

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Energy Storage, Magnetic Power, Superconductors on March 10, 2011

ABB, a Swiss-based engineering company, has presented a prototype of their innovative superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), at a DOE ARPA-E conference which took place in Washigton D.C. at the beginning of this month. Their 3.3 kWh proof-of-concept SMES is not very cost-effective for the moment, but may one day provide cleaner storage solutions for excess alternative energy.

Scientists Explain Limitations of High Temperature Superconductors in High Currents

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on June 28, 2010

Since their discovery in late 1980s, superconductors were thought to revolutionize everything that had an electric current flowing, but allowing it to pass through more easily, and with much less heat produced. Ultra-efficient magnetic trains had been envisioned, then, but …

Scientists Discover Nano-Scale Superconducting Material

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on June 15, 2010

Researchers from the Bar-Ilan University in Israel, collaborating with the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S. have designed superconducting thin films patterned with large arrays of nanowires and loops. The temperature at which they superconduct is pretty low and hard to get for the moment – only 30 °K (-243°C). Magnetic fields have proved themselves to change the material’s electrical resistance in an unexpected manner.

Molecular-Level Superconducting Material Discovered by Ohio Scientists

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on April 5, 2010

A sheet less than a nanometer wide and four pairs of molecules now constitutes the world’s smallest superconductor and proves that superconducting nanoscale materials can be made, an obvious advance for nano-scaled electronics and energy applications.

New Research Showing Fabrication Pattern for Higher-Temperature Superconductors

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on March 19, 2010

Researchers from Princeton University, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Japan, using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, have discovered how in a superconducting material, at a nano-scale level, regions with stronger superconductivity helped regions with weaker superconductivity survive when exposed to higher temperature.

Superconductors to get a low temperature boost (-180Ã‚Â°C) from Laser-based refrigerator

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on January 25, 2010

University of New Mexico researchers have surpassed themselves in a laser-based cooling project. Professor Mansoor Sheik-Bahae (et al.) and other researchers from the University of Pisa, Italy and the Los Alamos Institute created the world’s first all-solid-state cryocooler, that can be used from cooling infrared sensors to superconductors.

New Iron-Based Material Could Be The Best High Temperature Superconductor

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on January 20, 2010

Following the dream of realizing a high-temperature superconductor, Cornell University researchers just found something about iron-based materials: they can be made to resemble electronic liquid crystals.

High Temperature Superconducting Magnets Just Got 45% More Power

Posted by Mihai Sandru in Magnetic Power, Superconductors on December 3, 2009

Engineers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Florida State University are closer than ever to launching a new generation of high-field magnet, being 3,000 times stronger than an ordinary refrigerator magnet and will be able to generate a field about 45% more powerful than the strongest superconducting magnet currently available.

New Discovery Sheds Light on Way to High Temperature Superconductivity

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on November 3, 2009

High temperature superconductors are today what some other time the philosopher’s stone used to be. Research done by Gennady Logvenov and his colleagues from the Brookehaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY sheds a new light on how scientists could engineer materials to obtain their desiderate: room temperature superconductors.

SuperStation: The Superconductor Energy Hub Uniting U.S. Grids

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Energy news, Superconductors on October 16, 2009

New Mexico may become a hub for this kind of energetic interaction, as Clovis is wanted to host the SuperStation, a hub using superconducting cables to link three networks: The Eastern Interconnection, The Western Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection. The 5GW carrying cables will be cooled down to -300°F and thus energy losses through heat will be infinitesimally close to zero.

Researchers Make One More Step Towards Metallic Hydrogen as Superconductor

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on October 8, 2009

A team of scientists from Cornell University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook announced this week in a specialized publication that they discovered, at least theoretically, how to turn hydrogen into a metal at significantly lower pressures than ever thought and make a superconductor out of it.

Low Pressure Superconducting Hydrogen Compound Discovered

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Hydrogen Power, Superconductors on August 5, 2009

We have always thought of hydrogen as a fuel. Yet, there are many possibilities for this interesting element. Normally found in gaseous state, hydrogen is the most common in the universe. Recently, scientists from Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C., have found a way to compress hydrogen in such a manner that it becomes not only solid, but turns into a metallic superconducting state.

World's Thinnest Superconductor Ever Created

Posted by Cristi in New Inventions, Superconductors on June 10, 2009

Dr. Ken Shih and some of his physicist colleagues, have reported the development of the thinnest superconducting metal layer ever created, a superconducting sheet of lead only two atoms thick.

Germanium Hydride to Become High Temperature Viable Superconductor

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on January 7, 2009

The evolution of energy storage is not enough if we don’t also evolve the energy transportation methods. That’s why superconductors are not only good for us, but are also necessary in some applications where heat and energy loss, in general, have no place.

Room Temperature Superconductors: a Step Away

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Superconductors on July 13, 2008

Imagine your television set working for 0.0001Watt, or your electric car charged by the Sun as you go. Imagine almost never ending batteries powering cool engines, no power lost through heat.

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