Very cool, thanks for sending that out :) _____________________________________ Julian Zottl CTO, Radiant Network Technology, LLC Getting ahead in the tech sector isn't about kissing butt ... you gotta sniff the right packets
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "G.Waleed Kavalec" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: The Hardware List <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 15:53:50 -0500 >Nano World: Superconducting wires > >By CHARLES Q. CHOI > >NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) -- Nanotechnology could help enable the next >generation of superconducting wires for everything from new city power grids >to levitating trains, experts told UPI's Nano World. > >Superconductors allow electrical current to flow with virtually no >resistance. This enables superconducting wires to carry high levels of >current very efficiently. The problem is these wires often stop being >superconducting when around strong magnetic fields, the kind often generated >by motors and power lines. > >Researcher Amit Goyal, a materials scientist at Oak Ridge National >Laboratory in Tennessee, and his colleagues experimented on wires made of >yttrium-barium-copper-oxygen, or YBCO, which is a high-temperature >superconductor. This means it operates at about the same temperature >nitrogen is liquid at, relatively high compared the near absolute zero >temperatures other materials are superconducting at. > >Passing a current through a superconductor while in the presence of large >magnetic fields causes magnetic vortexes to move, which results in >electrical resistance. Goyal and his colleagues discovered that columns of >dots only 10 nanometers or so wide made of a non-superconducting ceramic >known as barium zirconate could help overcome this interference. > >The researchers created their wires by growing films of YBCO on top of >flexible metal foundations. Mixed in with the YBCO were barium zirconate >nanodots. Due to interactions between the barium zirconate and the >superconductor, these nanodots automatically lined up into columns that ran >vertically through YBCO. > >These columnar defects in the superconductor serve as "a barrier for the >magnetic flux to move, and hence allows the superconductor to carry >supercurrents in high magnetic fields," Goyal said. The nanometer scale of >these dots is crucial for pinning down the magnetic flux -- if they were >larger, the vortexes could move around within them, Goyal explained. "It's a >considerable advance," said materials scientist David Larbelestier at the >University of Wisconsin in Madison. > >The results are wires that for the first time meet or exceed the high >temperature superconductor industry's performance standards for many >large-scale applications, including motors, power cables and high-strength >magnets. Goyal expected companies to have superconducting wires possessing >such nanoscale defects within "a few years." > >"One can think about super-efficient, environmentally friendly motors, and >underground transmission lines that can revolutionize the power grid," Goyal >said. "In congested cities like New York, the power requirements are >increasing daily, and in time, it will reach capacity and the grid will not >be able to transfer any more power. Replacing them with superconducting >wires is perhaps the only way to move forward." > >While the researchers have demonstrated their findings in short wires just >slightly more than a half-inch long, Goyal noted a lot more work remained >open when it came to creating mile-long wires power companies would likely >need. >Goyal and his colleagues present their findings in the March 31 issue of the >journal Science. > >
