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A question regarding Super Conductors and Electricity in the Atmosphere
6 Answers
Just how Powerful can a Superconductor be? A fellow colleague and me was just having a conversation and this came up, could a superconductor be so powerful that it would be able to take and store or conduct electricity from the Atmosphere?
Answers
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Super conductors themselves are materials that exhibit almost no resistance - Usually at very low temperatures.
Typically these are in the form of magnetic coils. They are normally used in applications where wery powerful magnetic fields are used.
They're normally pretty inefficient energy storage devices due to the need to keep them cryogenically cooled.
They also don't store all that much energy compared to other techniques.
Calculation here
http://en.wikipedia.o...gnetic_energy_storage
That to store 1 GWh of energy would need a loop 100 miles in diameter .
They are also rather dangerous - if the material stops being supercoductive because the magnetic field or temperature becomes too high you get a quench as all that magnetic energy becomes heat.
The LHC had an unexpected quench a couple of years back and there was quite a lot of damage but thankfully nobody was hurt
Typically these are in the form of magnetic coils. They are normally used in applications where wery powerful magnetic fields are used.
They're normally pretty inefficient energy storage devices due to the need to keep them cryogenically cooled.
They also don't store all that much energy compared to other techniques.
Calculation here
http://en.wikipedia.o...gnetic_energy_storage
That to store 1 GWh of energy would need a loop 100 miles in diameter .
They are also rather dangerous - if the material stops being supercoductive because the magnetic field or temperature becomes too high you get a quench as all that magnetic energy becomes heat.
The LHC had an unexpected quench a couple of years back and there was quite a lot of damage but thankfully nobody was hurt
Certain materials become superconductive (ie zero resistance) when cooled below a certain temperature.
So "normal" coil windings make up electromagnets and then are cooled
In most cases this is only a few degrees above absolute zero so it has to be with liquid helium.
Using liquid helium is difficult expensive and dangerous - if you put some in a flask the air would freeze into a solid plug, the helium would continue to gassify inside and it would explode - so it has to be stored and transferred away from the air and all sorts of other precautions are needed.
There are "high temperature" superconductors which were discoverred about 30 years ago and these only need to be cooled with liquid nitrogen which is much easier to do and at the time it was thought these new materials would open up huge options but they are effectively ceramics and so getting them into wires and coils proved too difficult so they turned out to be less useful that had been hoped.
If you're feeling smart want to change the world, make a fortune and win a Nobel prize discovering a high temperature supercondutor that can be easilly made into a wire coil would be a damn good project
So "normal" coil windings make up electromagnets and then are cooled
In most cases this is only a few degrees above absolute zero so it has to be with liquid helium.
Using liquid helium is difficult expensive and dangerous - if you put some in a flask the air would freeze into a solid plug, the helium would continue to gassify inside and it would explode - so it has to be stored and transferred away from the air and all sorts of other precautions are needed.
There are "high temperature" superconductors which were discoverred about 30 years ago and these only need to be cooled with liquid nitrogen which is much easier to do and at the time it was thought these new materials would open up huge options but they are effectively ceramics and so getting them into wires and coils proved too difficult so they turned out to be less useful that had been hoped.
If you're feeling smart want to change the world, make a fortune and win a Nobel prize discovering a high temperature supercondutor that can be easilly made into a wire coil would be a damn good project
Thanks for the answer that's definitely got me thinking. Im guessing the reason the ceramics not to work was because of the limited malleability, either way its a fascinating subject and as you said someone is going to be very rich and famous once they unlock the secrets to a safe cheap high temperature supercondutor code.
Not "almost no resistance" Jake, None at all or they are not superconductors.
One of the major problems with high temperature superconductors is magnetic fields.
Most known superconductors are superdiamagnetic meaning that they exclude magnetic fields. However the superconductiing effect is lost if the field becomes strong enough to penetrate the material. Since all currents produce magnetic fields proportional to the current it is a substantial problem.
However a new class of "high temperature" superconductors was discoved in 2008. These are iron pnictide (silent p) materials. While the high temperature is a chilly 4K the material is not superparamagnetic. Moreover, unlike copper oxide alloys it is not a ceramic.
Although this temperature still requires liquid helium refrigerant, It must be remembered that the situation was the same when copper alloys were first discovered to be superconductors. There were susequently developed to reach transition temperatures of 138K allowing for liquid nitrogen coolant to be used.
Another important aspect of this new material is that it provides a basis for comparison or two different materials which may elucidate the physics of the phenomonon which is still not well understood. Once comprehended it may eventually be possible to design room temperature superconductors.
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/21
http://www.superconductors.org/
One of the major problems with high temperature superconductors is magnetic fields.
Most known superconductors are superdiamagnetic meaning that they exclude magnetic fields. However the superconductiing effect is lost if the field becomes strong enough to penetrate the material. Since all currents produce magnetic fields proportional to the current it is a substantial problem.
However a new class of "high temperature" superconductors was discoved in 2008. These are iron pnictide (silent p) materials. While the high temperature is a chilly 4K the material is not superparamagnetic. Moreover, unlike copper oxide alloys it is not a ceramic.
Although this temperature still requires liquid helium refrigerant, It must be remembered that the situation was the same when copper alloys were first discovered to be superconductors. There were susequently developed to reach transition temperatures of 138K allowing for liquid nitrogen coolant to be used.
Another important aspect of this new material is that it provides a basis for comparison or two different materials which may elucidate the physics of the phenomonon which is still not well understood. Once comprehended it may eventually be possible to design room temperature superconductors.
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/21
http://www.superconductors.org/
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