The promise of superconductors is a world in which our power supplies are managed more efficiently. Transmission lines lose almost a third of the electricity they carry. Electrical circuits of all kinds waste a certain percentage of the power due to “resistance,” a phenomenon whereby electricity is wasted as heat.

Superconductors have none of that. The electricity they carry travels without loss and without resistance.

Currently, the only working superconductors require a tremendous investment in cooling to liquid nitrogen like temperatures. This renders them impractical for most real-world applications.

Now, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have identified a “metal sandwich” that is expected to be a superior superconductor. The material is called lithium monoboride (LiB). It’s made by sandwiching a lithium metal “filling” between two layers of boron around.

Though lithium monoboride hasn’t yet been made in the real world, the modeling results were sufficiently impressive that the paper was accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review B.

Dr. Stefano Curtarolo, a member of the team at Duke said, “It should superconduct at a higher temperature, perhaps more than 10 percent greater, than any other binary alloy superconductor.”

He pointed out that once a new superconductive material is identified, scientists can usually modify the molecular structure and find even better variants.

Among the exciting potential uses of a high-temperature superconductor are trains that levitate above their tracks traveling a tremendous speed without any friction.

The major breakthrough in 1986 and subsequent years involved so-called high temperature superconductors (HiTC). All of these have been ceramic.

However, recently the substance magnesium diboride (MgB2) was found to have superconducting properties, and works at a relatively toasty 39 degrees Kelvin (still more than 300 degrees below zero in Fahrenheit terms). It has the advantage of being manufacturable from two simple abundant elements.

The Duke scientists used a physical modeling software package they developed to evaluate properties of potential materials. The new material was a serendipitous discovery in this process.

“It was like spotting a $100 bill on the street,” Curtarolo said of the finding. “It seemed impossible that this could be real and that no one had seen it before.”

Now, they will use the Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego to perform further calculations and refine the process. Also, they sell to manufacture the material which they stress will be no easy task.

Overall, the progress toward room temperature superconductors is proceeding in fits and starts. Nevertheless, with each breakthrough scientists become more optimistic that this “Holy Grail” of electricity management will finally be achieved.

In the mid-‘80s, I co-founded a well-regarded publication called “Superconductor World Report.” With hindsight, we were premature. However, the time of the superconductor industry is approaching and I’ll be watching to see who licenses the crucial technology.

To your profitable future,

Jonathan Kolber
June 27, 2007

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