Levitating trains, skateboards and cars straight from sci-fi films will soon become a reality, thanks to the breakthrough that scientists from the Institute of Chemistry. Max Planck and the University of Chicago.
High-temperature superconductors unrecognizable will change our world. They will allow us to build vehicles that with a minimal loss of energy will be able to travel at enormous speeds. The best example of the possibility of using such technology in practice may be Maglev type trains, which, thanks to the phenomenon of magnetic levitation, can move at a speed of over 600 km / h.
Superconductivity is also an important element in the construction of artificial suns. New technologies will make nuclear fusion reactors profitable and eventually commercialize them worldwide, offering our civilization access to a cheap, universal and ecological source of energy for the future.
The problem is that previously developed and used superconductors operate at extremely low temperature of the government minus 234 degrees Celsius. Recently, superconductors operating at a temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius have been discovered, but the breakthrough has only occurred now. Researchers from the United States and Germany have developed a material that maintains the flow of electrons with no resistance at just minus 23 degrees.
Researchers placed metallic lanthanum and hydrogen in a pressurized chamber in the Advanced Photon Source syncrotron (APS), and then the device subjected them to extremely high pressure from 150 to 170 gigapascals, or 1.7 million times higher than atmospheric pressure. In this way, a material called lanthanum hydride (LaH10) was produced. During the experiments it turned out that already at minus 23 degrees Celsius it does not show any electrical resistance.
Obviously, a long way to come to the invention of superconductors working at room temperature, but from year to year, the jump in this matter delights and gives hope for a quick delay of the goal. However, such a temperature of superconductors is enough to build even faster and cheaper in operation, eg. Hyperloop future technology capsule.
Source: GeekWeek.pl/Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Photo: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry