Superconductor room temp ambient pressure

[mikbone]

Lots of skepticism currently but It may happen in our generation.  

 

 

[Carborendum]

Sounds promising.  We'll see.

One thing bothered me about the presenter.  He kept saying "degrees Kelvin" instead of "Kelvins."  It makes me believe he's just a presenter, not a real science geek.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Carborendum

[Vort]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

Sounds promising.  We'll see.

One thing bothered me about the presenter.  He kept saying "degrees Kelvin" instead of "Kelvins."  It makes me believe he's just a presenter, not a real science geek.

Two-Bit da Vinci is about two steps above a clickbait channel. He has some good content, but his reviews and statements about things betray a lack of deep understanding of what he's talking about. Like many channel creators, he basically aggregates a bunch of content on a topic and then provides a kind of summary as a lit review of sorts. In other words, he talks about interesting things, but provides few if any original insights. He appears totally dependent on popular writeups as sources and evinces very limited understanding of what he's talking about. So I tend to avoid his channel.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Vort

[mikbone]

Im pretty excited.  

AI is way over performing all of our expectations.  Our knowledge of genetics is getting to the level where we can probably start helping humanity (although all the Doctor Evil’s out there may cause some great harm).  If we do achieve an inexpensive room temperature and pressure superconductor, humanity will change drastically.  

We will move on from the information age, and the options will be limited by our imagination.

I’ll be able to use a MRI in my clinic and the super quantum computers will be able to reconstruct images in real time.  

Transportation, fusion reactors, electric grids.

I’m looking forward to the future.  My children are going to have some exciting lives.  What a time to live.

[Vort]

6 hours ago, mikbone said:

fusion reactors

I will believe this only when I see it. The engineering challenges are enormous; it's not obvious to me that a fusion reactor is possible, even in principle, unless there is a cold-fusion-like shortcut or a discovery that changes our understanding of physics.

[Carborendum]

9 hours ago, Vort said:

I will believe this only when I see it. The engineering challenges are enormous; it's not obvious to me that a fusion reactor is possible, even in principle, unless there is a cold-fusion-like shortcut or a discovery that changes our understanding of physics.

I agree with your overall sentiment.  But I do believe that a fusion reactor is possible (e.g. the sun).  But we are far from having the technology to make it a manmade reality.  What we're missing are a few breakthroughs.  Primary problems: 

• Containment
• Fuel
• Exhaust

Duh. 

We have fuel that we're working with.  And maybe it just isn't the right fuel.

Exhaust will be what it will be.  But there needs to be a method of removal/routing.

Containment is the biggie.  The Sun uses its immense gravity for containment.  How on earth (literally) are we going to contain so much energy?

People said that the sound barrier simply could not be broken... until it was.  But it was true that it was much further away than people had initially hoped.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Carborendum

[mikbone]

The drama intensifies 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/superconductor-breakthrough-replicated-twice?utm_source=tldrnewsletter

 

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/07/tracking-lk-99-superconductor-replication-efforts.html

Edited August 2, 2023 by mikbone

[mikbone]

lanarkite (Pb₂SO₅) and copper phosphide (Cu₃P) 

We are talking about super cheap elements.

Even if only a small % of the finished product superconducts, we just have to improve the manufacturing process and then upscale.  Also, once we know the properties that allow it to function we will likely create even better versions.

[mikbone]

From Science magazine

 

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/room-temperature-superconductor-new-developments?utm_source=tldrnewsletter

 

Conclusion

I am guardedly optimistic at this point. The Shenyang and Lawrence Berkeley calculations are very positive developments, and take this well out of the cold-fusion "we can offer no explanation" territory. Not that there's anything wrong with new physics (!), but it sets a much, much higher bar if you have to invoke something in that range. I await more replication data, and with more than just social media videos backing them up. This is by far the most believable shot at room-temperature-and-pressure superconductivity the world has seen so far, and the coming days and weeks are going to be extremely damned interesting.

 

 

Most of the science he was explaining is above my O chem level.  

Edited August 2, 2023 by mikbone

[Vort]

57 minutes ago, mikbone said:

Most of the science he was explaining is above my O chem level.

Possibly because the lead-copper-phosphorus-halogens-based superconductor candidate is inorganic.

[NeuroTypical]

30 minutes ago, Vort said:

Possibly because the lead-copper-phosphorus-halogens-based superconductor candidate is inorganic.

"wonk-wonk-wonk-wink-wonk".   That's what you sound like.  

[mikbone]

This reminds me of the race to be the first to get credit for flight.  The Wright bros won in our opinion, but lots of teams were working on it @ the same time.  

And similar to to how calculus was discovered independently in the late 17th century by two great mathematicians: Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.

The Holy Ghost no doubt has inspired mankind with many discoveries. 

This may be another radical step.

[mikbone]

Im not even sure how stable or useful that current superconductors are in scientific application.

As far as I know, there are not superconductors on the JWST and that would obviously be a perfect location to place one.

[Traveler]

3 hours ago, mikbone said:

lanarkite (Pb₂SO₅) and copper phosphide (Cu₃P) 

We are talking about super cheap elements.

Even if only a small % of the finished product superconducts, we just have to improve the manufacturing process and then upscale.  Also, once we know the properties that allow it to function we will likely create even better versions.

Just for your information, it was discovered over 2 decades ago that single wall carbon nanotubes are super conductors in the ambient temperatures of space.  The problem is the same as what you are currently excited about – sizing.  We have not yet discovered a method to consistently upsize for production what can be done for small amounts in labs.  I do not know if single wall carbon nanotubes are employed on JWST.

From what I read that is published from initial white papers, it appears to me that there ought to be a means to modify the geometry of a single wall carbon nanotube similar to the lead-copper-phosphorus-halogen structure.  In the meantime, if we could ever figure out how to mass produce single wall carbon nanotubes – we could significantly reduce the cost of you very expensive medical equipment.

Another piece of information – when I worked for the Department of Defense, we were able to produce Josephson junction superconductors in satellite surveillance.   This was over 4 decades ago.  The results of this achievement was leaked to Russia, and I wonder if it was on purpose.   I believe that this little bit of technology and its capabilities was what lead to the demise of Communism in Russia – certainly more than the mythical Star Wars technology of taking out deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

 

The Traveler

[Carborendum]

11 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

"wonk-wonk-wonk-wink-wonk".   That's what you sound like.  

I'll start calling you Peppermint Patty.

[Carborendum]

10 hours ago, mikbone said:

Im not even sure how stable or useful that current superconductors are in scientific application.

As far as I know, there are not superconductors on the JWST and that would obviously be a perfect location to place one.

What I've been wondering is if it will have much of an impact on our power grid.  For the most part, the energy loss on an AC system isn't all that bad.  So, what advantage would there be if we had superconducting power lines?

I'm not sure.  Electricity was always my weak point in the engineering disciplines.  I'll have to talk to someone who would know better.

[mikbone]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

What I've been wondering is if it will have much of an impact on our power grid.  For the most part, the energy loss on an AC system isn't all that bad.  So, what advantage would there be if we had superconducting power lines?

I'm not sure.  Electricity was always my weak point in the engineering disciplines.  I'll have to talk to someone who would know better.

I don’t think the room temp superconductor will be viable in the immediate future.  But if this LK-99 is even a small breakthrough then it may be possible within the decade.

If so, I think we will have fusion reactors before we replace the national electric grid.  The amount of materials required to replace the grid would probably be equivalent to providing every US citizen with a person quantum computer.

It would be better spent on phones, batteries, computers, etc.

[Vort]

12 hours ago, Traveler said:

Just for your information, it was discovered over 2 decades ago that single wall carbon nanotubes are super conductors in the ambient temperatures of space.

Since the ambient temperature of space is less than 3 kelvins, that's not really saying much. Pretty much any superconductive material will be superconductive at that temperature.

[Carborendum]

8 hours ago, mikbone said:

I don’t think the room temp superconductor will be viable in the immediate future.  But if this LK-99 is even a small breakthrough then it may be possible within the decade.

If so, I think we will have fusion reactors before we replace the national electric grid.  The amount of materials required to replace the grid would probably be equivalent to providing every US citizen with a person quantum computer.

It would be better spent on phones, batteries, computers, etc.

For electronics, it may not be the breakthrough you seem to be hoping for.  The distances are so small that resistance is not the issue.  Most of solid state technology uses semi-conductors for a reason.

[Vort]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

For electronics, it may not be the breakthrough you seem to be hoping for.  The distances are so small that resistance is not the issue.  Most of solid state technology uses semi-conductors for a reason.

One consumer product area where room-temperature (or higher) superconductors might be game-changing would be permanent or semipermanent supermagnets. But with the advent of neodymium magnets, this niche has already been filled to some degree.

[Traveler]

8 hours ago, Vort said:

Since the ambient temperature of space is less than 3 kelvins, that's not really saying much. Pretty much any superconductive material will be superconductive at that temperature.

As I understand single wall nanotubes are superconductors even at 7 times ambient space temperature or around 20 kelvins.  Even at room temperature nothing else has been found with less resistance - except with perhaps what is being discussed in this thread.   I do not know but I suspect that the JWST relies on nanotubes.  If not, then I am sure that the most advanced Josephson junction is employed.  When I was working for the DOD the details of the Josephson junction was not just highly classified but carefully monitored.  Even the code word for the related projects that had access to the data were classified.

As a side note – there is a lot of fuss concerning classified documents in the hands of individuals (presidents and others) that is not properly secured.   It is my opinion that it is too easy to classify data and too difficult to un-classify data meaning that there is a lot of unnecessary top-secret and top-secret SI that is classified beyond their importance.   If any documents were removed from a secure vault – they were not that important.  I am quite sure if there were important documents – we would not be hearing about it.  Charges would be brought but not about mishandling of classified documents.  Unless, in my opinion, the documents were overclassified and we are dealing with politics of what is important and not what is important.

 

The Traveler

[mikbone]

Couple interesting threads.  

I love to see thought and experimental results.  

Plus the excitement!

[Vort]

  

11 minutes ago, Traveler said:

As I understand single wall nanotubes are superconductors even at 7 times ambient space temperature or around 20 kelvins.  Even at room temperature nothing else has been found with less resistance - except with perhaps what is being discussed in this thread.

  The idea of a superconductor is that they have zero resistance. Nothing can have less resistance than zero, because "negative resistivity" would violate all sorts of conservation laws.

11 minutes ago, Traveler said:

When I was working for the DOD the details of the Josephson junction was not just highly classified but carefully monitored.  Even the code word for the related projects that had access to the data were classified.

  Very interesting. I wonder what, exactly, was classified? The particulars of the development, I expect. Josephson published his ideas about the effects leading to a (what we now call) Josephson junction in 1962, and he won the Nobel Prize in physics for it in 1973. The idea itself was certainly well-known.

[Traveler]

52 minutes ago, Vort said:

One consumer product area where room-temperature (or higher) superconductors might be game-changing would be permanent or semipermanent supermagnets. But with the advent of neodymium magnets, this niche has already been filled to some degree.

The world would change if or when it is discovered how to mass produce nanotubes.  Beyond solar energy possibilities that can operate at 90% efficacy – nanotubes are the most promising possibility for a space elevator and solar production of hydrogen, desalination of sea water and converting desert sands into large scale hydroponics.

Another side note possibility of inexpensive semipermanent super magnets is a solution for sustainable nuclear fusion.  We are at a threshold of technical advancement but just can’t seem to get past the next step.  I sometimes wonder if we, as a global society, are too wrapped up in social engineering involved in the politics of individualized pleasures, to achieve intelligent advancements in beneficial social cooperation.  

 

The Traveler

[Traveler]

23 minutes ago, Vort said:

  

  The idea of a superconductor is that they have zero resistance. Nothing can have less resistance than zero, because "negative resistivity" would violate all sorts of conservation laws.

  Very interesting. I wonder what, exactly, was classified? The particulars of the development, I expect. Josephson published his ideas about the effects leading to a (what we now call) Josephson junction in 1962, and he won the Nobel Prize in physics for it in 1973. The idea itself was certainly well-known.

The concept is well known, it is the specifics of application that was classified.  It has been several decades since I was involved, and I am sure specific applications have been approved.  I would be very concerned if China had access even to our now 4 decades old technology – especially if it was employed with a large balloon that could cross unobstructed across the USA.

I think they would know – not only the locations of our entire national supply chain manufacturing infrastructure but the production capabilities as well. And of course, our entire military infrastructure and associated supply chain.

 

The Traveler

Edited August 3, 2023 by Traveler