SUPER CONDUCTIVITY

Subject : Science & tech

Context : A group of researchers at University of Rochester, Intel corporation and University of Nevada in the U.S. have created a material that is superconducting at 15 degrees Celsius.

Concept :

A new material composed of carbon, hydrogen and sulphur superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius.

Superconductor

• Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance. Unlike the more familiar conductors such as copper or steel, a superconductor can carry a current indefinitely without losing any energy. They also have several other very important properties, such as the fact that no magnetic field can exist within a superconductor.
• Another property of a superconductor is that it will exclude magnetic fields, a phenomenon called the Meissner effect.

Advantage of superconductors:

• Currently, superconductivity can only be achieved at temperatures far below zero, in processes that are too expensive for wider application.
• The devices have low power dissipation, high operating speed, and extreme sensitivity.
• Devices built with room temperature superconductors tend to be extremely efficient and entail large savings in both energy and costs.

Application:

• Superconductors already have drastically changed the world of medicine with the advent of MRI machines, which have meant a reduction in exploratory surgery.
• Power utilities, electronics companies, the military, transportation, and theoretical physics have all benefited strongly from the discovery of these materials.

Meissner effect

• When a material makes the transition from the normal to the superconducting state, it actively excludes magnetic fields from its interior; this is called the Meissner effect.

Critical temperature

• The critical temperature for superconductors is the temperature at which the electrical resistivity of metal drops to zero.