Dev.SN

Breakthrough in Superconductivity Research

posted by mattie_p on Monday February 17 2014, @07:37PM   
from the how-super-is-it dept.

romanr writes:

"Copper oxides, also known as cuprates, are the most promising materials for superconductivity. Today, cuprates can be superconductive at temperatures as high as -150 °C. But for many years scientists wondered why they lose superconductivity when concentration of electrons drops below certain level. Most scientist thought that the cuprates gradually became insulators.

Scientists from Université de Sherbrooke discovered that the loss of superconductivity is because of a sudden appearance of a distinct electronic phase in the material that enters into competition with the superconductivity and weakens it. It means, that higher temperature superconductors will be possible if we can get rid of the competing phase. This new approach opens a way to get an ambient temperature superconductivity."

• Flywheels are not the magic bullet (Score: 1) by sfm on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:50AM

  by sfm (675) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:50AM (#1624)

  Flywheels have additional downsides:
  Need to be in a vacuum to reduce air friction
  Need special materials to achieve energy density near Li-batteries
  Special containment "case" is required, both for holding a vacuum and in the event of catastrophic failure

  Also, there are non-trivial engineering concerns
  Magnetic bearings exist, but they tend to be expensive
  Any movement in the axis of rotation causes Coriolis force. For a vertical flywheel, simply the rotation of the earth produces a force depending on latitude

  All of these problems have technical solutions and flywheels are a viable technology. Unfortunately, it is hard pressed to compete economically with other forms of energy storage in all but a few special cases.

  Parent