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Navy files for patent on room-temperature superconductor
A scientist working for the U.S. Navy has filed for a patent on a room-temperature superconductor, representing a potential paradigm shift in energy transmission and computer systems.
Salvatore Cezar Pais is listed as the inventor on the Navy's patent application made public by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.
The application claims that a room-temperature superconductor can be built using a wire with an insulator core and an aluminum PZT (lead zirconate titanate) coating deposited by vacuum evaporation with a thickness of the London penetration depth and polarized after deposition.
An electromagnetic coil is circumferentially positioned around the coating such that when the coil is activated with a pulsed current, a non-linear vibration is induced, enabling room temperature superconductivity.
"This concept enables the transmission of electrical power without any losses and exhibits optimal thermal management (no heat dissipation)," according to the patent document, "which leads to the design and development of novel energy generation and harvesting devices with enormous benefits to civilization."
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Sunday February 24 2019, @06:33PM (6 children)
So.. which century is this inventor mr. Pais from, again?!?
Last I heard of high-temperature superconductors was some kind of brittle ceramic made with Yttrium, Barium and Copper. And then high temperature meant: "liquid Nitrogen temperature" (-196°C). This looks like quite a bit newer technology.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:06PM (5 children)
There is literally no way in hell this is a superconductor at room temperature.
The material Aluminum PZT isn't super conductive at any temp that I'm aware of. Also the fact that it needs a coil and rapid pulsing of energy in the coil, is itself a source of loss. If anything what he has made here is a standard electromagnet with an aluminum core. That's what the diagrams are showing too. It is possible the deposition process is causing an EM reflection resulting in lower losses than would normally be expected. But super conductor it is not.
Super-conductivity is a state of matter wherein energy is transferred without loss because the electrons pair up and form cooper pairs, effectively sharing a single wave function and then Do-si-do'ing across the surface, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-si-do [wikipedia.org]
He isn't creating a new state of matter, there is no way that cooper pairs could form in that much EM noise, ergo not a super conductor. Perhaps a somewhat more efficient conductor / electromagnet though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:32PM (1 child)
i suppose super-conductors are cool (hey, pun) because you can make any shape/size magnets.
imagine taking a ferro-magnet material (i think that's what stuff is called that can retain a magnetic field?)
stretching it to a long wire and then trying to magnetize it so that north-south are perpendicular (right-angled)
to the length -or- imagine a magnetized nail so that north and south are not at the tips but "on one and the other side of the nail".
with superconductors i guess this can be realized and since they run current without lose and current makes magnetic fields
they are permanent magnets as long as they are cooled below their break-down temp?
not sure the excitement about transporting electricity over vast distances without lose is what will be the main usage case
for superconductors. the fact that any-shape-size permanent magnets can be realized will probably open the door to generate
a lot of electricity on-site without having to fetch it from a far away place anyways?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:50PM
We can already create magnets of any size, shape and length. Both permanent magnets and electromagnets. This is how those wierd magnetic toys work and they are how maglev trains work. Mag-lev tracks are essentially a large electric motor that has been flattened, i.e. an electro-magnet.
What makes superconductors and other "supers" like super fluids and Bose Einstein Condensates, exciting is that they exhibit quantum mechanical states & effects observable at the macro level.
We can ask all kinds of questions about what happens in the quantum world and find an analog in these exotic states, and in most cases this teaches us to ask better questions.
But the fact is superconductors have a specific definition. This invention could not possibly meet it. It would actually be far MORE exciting if instead of pretending this were a super conductor, that they would instead call it a high efficiency conductor.
After all, this thing is physically realizable today using construction techniques we have right now. You could build this yourself with the right supplies and a vapor deposition chamber.
By the looks of it, it would work well as a long distance transmission line assuming the losses are less than current materials and construction techniques. Those reduced losses translate into lower long term costs for the power companies because they are losing as much as 5% of their energy output per mile at the moment. If this could reduce that loss to even 4% per mile, it would mean millions saved in the span of a couple of years. That translates to lower energy costs for all of us.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Sunday February 24 2019, @09:32PM (1 child)
FWIW (which may not be much, or even anything), the patent does not seem to be claiming superconductivity via cooper pairs.
It also struck me that if the navy, via a contractor or whatever, had actually discovered superconductivity of this nature, the very last thing they would do would be to file a patent that tells every other country how to do it as well, considering the value of superconductivity in things like railguns and so on.
Then it struck me that perhaps the patent describes the wrong thing in such a way as to discourage research in or around an area where they've had some degree of success.
Or, you know, the patent submitter is just another kook. 😊
--
(√(-shit))²
Shit just got real
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday February 25 2019, @01:23AM
Yes... that's why I came back to this thread. Thinking about what use would a pulsed current array super conductor have. This would be perfect for a rail gun, a project the navy has been working on for close to two decades.
https://globalnews.ca/video/4811086/u-s-navy-demonstrates-electromagnetic-railgun [globalnews.ca]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS0KgdzMB5A [youtube.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun [wikipedia.org]
https://science.howstuffworks.com/rail-gun1.htm [howstuffworks.com]
You can build your own:
http://www.doityourselfgadgets.com/2013/10/homemade-railgun.html [doityourselfgadgets.com]
https://hackaday.com/2015/11/09/the-most-powerful-diy-railgun/ [hackaday.com]
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wjxmmz/this-guy-built-a-semi-automatic-portable-railgun [vice.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 24 2019, @10:27PM
Are you sure superconductivity can be obtained only by Cooper paring electrons?
Have you or anyone else demonstrated any other mechanism is impossible?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford