from the equivalent-to-100-fridge-magnets-in-useless-units dept.
A new record for a trapped field in a superconductor, beating a record that has stood for more than a decade, could herald the arrival of materials in a broad range of fields. Researchers managed to 'trap' a magnetic field with a strength of 17.6 Tesla roughly 100 times stronger than the field generated by a typical fridge magnet in a high temperature gadolinium barium copper oxide (GdBaCuO) superconductor, beating the previous record by 0.4 Tesla.
The research demonstrates the potential of high-temperature superconductors for applications in a range of fields, including flywheels for energy storage, 'magnetic separators', which can be used in mineral refinement and pollution control, and in high-speed levitating monorail trains.
Superconductors are materials that carry electrical current with little or no resistance when cooled below a certain temperature. While conventional superconductors need to be cooled close to absolute zero (zero degrees on the Kelvin scale (or -273 °C) before they superconduct, high temperature superconductors do so above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (-196 °C) which makes them relatively easy to cool and cheaper to operate.
Superconductors are currently used in scientific and medical applications, such as MRI scanners, and in the future could be used to protect the national grid and increase energy efficiency, due to the amount of electrical current they can carry without losing energy.
More here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140626213359.htm
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday July 06 2014, @10:31PM
No one is interested? Of course, the article does contain such great paragraphs as this:
What with "established methods" and "relatively simple technique" that are "similar, but subtly different", I just don't know what to say. Wait, Qualcomm? Patents!