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Scientists have discovered a new superconducting material that could revolutionise the future of energy and electronics.
The ground-breaking discovery could lead to power grids that would vastly improve energy efficiency, saving around 200 million megawatt hours that are currently lost to resistance. In addition, it could contribute to the process of nuclear fusion, creating unlimited power.
The discovery could be used for other innovations, such as high-speed hovering trains and ground-breaking medical equipment never seen before.
What is a superconductor?
In terms of scientific discoveries, scientists believe this is the one that could change the entire world: a superconductor is a material that has no electrical resistance and can’t be penetrated by magnetic fields. An electric current in a superconductor could continue indefinitely!
The superconducting material enables electricity transmission without resistance, while magnetic fields can pass around the material: the scientific breakthrough has discovered a material that works at a low enough temperature and pressure to be used in real-life practical situations.
Previous superconducting materials worked only at extremely high or low temperatures under intense pressure. The new material enables superconductivity at a temperature of 20.5°C and compressed to around 145,000 psi, which is significantly less intense than existing requirements.
Who discovered the theory of superconductivity?
The Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes is credited with discovering superconductivity in 1911. Working at his laboratory at Leiden University in The Netherlands, he was studying the electrical properties of mercury.
After finding the electrical resistance in mercury completely disappeared when he reduced the temperature to below 4.2 Kelvin, or -268.95°C, he applied an electric current to supercooled mercury and then disconnected the battery. The electric current persisted in the mercury at a constant charge and did not decrease. This confirmed there was no electrical resistance – opening the door to superconductivity.
Research into superconducting materials has continued for more than a century, until the recent ground-breaking discovery finally presented scientists with a material that could be used in the real world.
What’s the science behind the discovery?
The new superconducting material has been revealed in a scientific paper, Evidence of Near-Ambient Superconductivity in a N-doped Lutetium Hydride, which was published in March 2023.
Nicknamed “reddmatter” because during the creation process, scientists noticed it became a very bright red colour; the research team created the material by mixing a rare earth metal called lutetium with hydrogen and a smaller part of nitrogen.
The substance was left to react for two or three days at a high temperature. It was a rich blue colour at first, but after being pressed at high pressure, it turned pink when it achieved superconductivity, before becoming a rich red colour in its non-superconducting metallic state.
Other scientific research in the past has produced similar superconducting materials, but this is the first time a new material has had a real chance of being used for actual innovations.
Potential applications
Potential applications for the superconducting material are far-ranging. Scientists say it heralds a “new era” for the world, according to leading scientist Ranga Dias and his team, who made the discovery.
Many people may have experienced a superconductor in a hospital without even realising it. A superconductor is needed to generate the strong magnetic fields needed for nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
These machines, widely used in the medical sector, use powerful electromagnets that generate heat by creating resistance. Normal metals would melt due to the heat of even a small amount of resistance without the use of a superconductor but as the superconductors have no electrical resistance, no heat is generated, so the electromagnets can generate the necessary magnetic fields that make the medical equipment work.
The use of a new, more practical superconducting material, that can operate at regular temperatures, has the potential to revolutionise such technology, creating ground-breaking and highly advanced medical equipment.
Similar superconducting electromagnets are also used in experimental nuclear fusion reactors, Maglev trains, power railguns and coilguns, high-energy particle accelerator laboratories, mobile phone base stations, particle detectors and fast digital circuits.
It means any time a really strong magnetic field or electric current that won’t melt the equipment is required, a superconductor will do the job. Research is continuing to develop the new superconducting material further.
The discovery is particularly relevant to the electronics sector – and here at Sellectronics Ltd, we will be following its progress with great interest. As a leading UK electronics manufacturing company, rapid prototyping and design services provider, Sellectronics Ltd provides innovative, high quality PCB assembly.