Room-Temperature Superconductivity Heats Up

Posted by pseudolus 10/27/2024

Room-Temperature Superconductivity Heats Up(cacm.acm.org)

13 points | 12 comments

jacknews 10/27/2024|

"(room-temp. superconductivity) would deliver nearly unlimited energy, turbocharge compute speeds, and introduce new and better ways to use computers and other electronics."

How so? It would save a few percent in transmission losses, make various quantum sensors possible/cheaper, just maybe, levitating trains, if it's cheap enough. Unlimited energy? lol.

I did a double-take when I checked the publication. I can't believe this is in the ACM journal.

randomNumber7 10/27/2024||

> Consequently, the challenge—getting to superconductivity at temperatures above 0 degrees Kelvin (-273.15 degrees Celsius) at ambient pressure—remains a holy grail of physics and materials science.

This alone cannot be a correct statement, because the 3. Law of Thermodynamics states that you cannot reach 0 degrees Kelvin. So I think we already got some working superconductivity at room temperature by that definition.

The author clearly has not the knowledge to write over this so I stopped reading there. Also it cannot be a typo, since he even explains the corresponding degree in Celsius

James_K 10/27/2024||

I would say it's more obviously wrong because I've seen examples of ceramic superconductors cooled by only liquid nitrogen. A quick google confirms that cuperate-perovskite ceramic superconductors have a critical temperature above 90K.

f1shy 10/27/2024||

After reading this first comment, is clear to me that it makes no sense to read. Flagged.

mikewarot 10/27/2024||

Room temperature superconductors would make a lot of new things possible, like smaller and better motors, generators, RF filters, low frequency antennas, etc.

No matter how slow you needed a load to turn, you could wind a motor to do it without gear reduction.

Gear trains in large scale wind turbines are a huge maintenance issue, and failure mode. With superconducting generators, they could be converted to direct drive.

The only limits are critical temperature and critical field strength.

vitiral 10/27/2024|

> Finding a way to reduce energy loss as electricity travels over transmission lines and across wires would profoundly change society. It would deliver nearly unlimited energy

Um... No. Transmission lines is not a serious use-cases of super conductors. I believe current loss rates are in the 2-5% range. Super conductors do not provide energy in and of themselves -- though they are likely a critical component to nuclear fusion, which would.

dyauspitr 10/27/2024|

Theoretically you could have one side of the world power the other side with solar panels for essentially infinite, cheap power.

vitiral 10/27/2024||

It's only "cheap" if the room temperature semiconductor material is cheap and easy to maintain. Also, it's not like solar panels are free.

dyauspitr 10/28/2024||

That’s true, but if it’s a matter of just laying some under sea cables, we’re already really good at that.

gus_massa 10/28/2024||

Cables made of cooper or optic fiber, both are flexible and can absorb hits and other nasty mechanical stuff.

Most (all?) modern superconductors are ceramics, so it's like having a huge stick made of the porcelain.

dyauspitr 10/28/2024||

We’re talking about a hypothetical thing we don’t even know exists. Maybe it’s like glass that can be drawn out. Maybe you could have cables that are a series of straight ceramic rods with flexible interconnects made of other metals. It’s all just hypothetical.

gus_massa 10/28/2024||

Yep, but a room temperature, normal pressure, flexible cable and cheap is too optimistic. More than future technology is magic.