The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - March 20, 2024
The field from this magnet generates an equal and opposite field in the underlying superconductor, which causes the cube to levitate. So far, scientists have only been able to create superconductivity at subzero temperatures, but unconventional superconductors could lead to room-temperature superconductivity.
A high-quality miassite crystal synthesized at Ames National Lab has been proven to be an unconventional superconductor.
Scientists at the Ames National Laboratory in Iowa have made a world's first discovery – a naturally occurring mineral with superconducting properties similar to the high-temperature superconductors that could revolutionize energy, transportation, and electronics.
Superconductive materials can conduct electricity without energy loss. Scientists have already created superconductors in the lab that are used in medical MRI machines, power cables, and quantum computers.
Conventional superconductors, however, only work at extremely low temperatures near absolute zero.
In the 1980s, scientists discovered unconventional superconductors, many of which are superconductive at much higher temperatures.
Even the best "high temp" superconductor must be chilled to minus nine degrees Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius) at atmospheric pressure to work. The expense and impracticability of chilling these superconductors to arctic winter temperatures limit their practical applications.
A high-quality miassite crystal synthesized at Ames National Lab has been proven to be an unconventional superconductor.
Room-temperature semiconductors would unlock a whole new era of innovation. Electricity could be generated ultra-efficiently and transmitted with virtually no loss; super magnets for applications like maglev trains and superconducting circuits for quantum computers without the need for cryogenic freezers would become a reality.
Materials scientists typically do not turn to nature for inspiration when it comes to high-temp superconductivity. After all, they have only discovered four minerals in nature that act as superconductors. Out of these, only miassite has proven to be an unconventional superconductor with properties similar to high-temperature superconductors.
By recreating this mineral at Ames Lab, scientists discovered three new semiconductors and are gaining a greater understanding of unconventional superconductivity.
Made up of a very rare metal known as rhenium and sulfur, miassite (RH17S15) has only been found in one place on Earth – the Ural Mountains of southern Russia.
Ruslan Prozorov, a senior physicist in the material science and engineering department at Ames Lab, says miassite is interesting for a couple of reasons. Beyond being a rare example of highly reactive elements coming together to form a natural superconductor, miassite has a complex formula.
"Intuitively, you think that this is something which is produced deliberately during a focused search, and it cannot possibly exist in nature," said Prozorov, "But it turns out it does."
To gain greater insights into miassite, Paul Canfield, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University and a scientist at Ames Lab, synthesized high-quality miassite crystals in the lab.
"Although miassite is a mineral that was discovered near the Miass River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, it is a rare one that generally does not grow as well-formed crystals," he explained.
The growing of miassite crystals at Ames Lab was part of a larger effort to discover compounds that combine very high melting elements like rhenium and volatile elements such as sulfur.
A team led by Prozorov put the high-quality miassite crystals grown by Canfield through tests aimed at understanding the nature of the mineral's superconductivity.
Both tests demonstrated that miassite is an unconventional superconductor. This dispels the previously held belief that unconventional superconductivity is not a natural phenomenon.
This work has also led to new discoveries.
"It's like finding a hidden fishing hole that is full of big fat fish," said Canfield. "In the Rh-S system we discovered three new superconductors. And, through Ruslan's detailed measurements, we discovered that the miassite is an unconventional superconductor."
Prozorov says uncovering the mechanisms behind unconventional superconductors like miassite "is key to economically sound applications of superconductors."
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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