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Superconductivity at 20C

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LAN_403

Conundrum

Fri Mar 18 2011, 08:40PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

EDIT:- No superconductor has yet been made in bulk with a zero resistance, that has a Tc greater than 200K.
The likelihood is that the impurities within the material make it work, purifying it will likely cause it to stop working completely.

I would expect that even in the highly unlikely event that this is useable the toxicity of Tl compounds combined with the difficulties in fabrication would mean that any product using this is unlikely to reach mainstream use within 20 years.

Unfortunately it looks like another one of those "hey this is cool" discoveries that has few if any practical uses.
Magnetic detectors might be one of them but there are easier and cheaper ways to do that.

Case in point, LHe based MRI machines still use niobium/titanium wire even though YBCO and BSCCO have far better critical current, for the simple reason that over time the ceramics used degrade.

-A

Patrick

Fri Mar 18 2011, 09:07PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

If true this is so important.

Heres the problem I see: If what was said at the bottom is true that they intend to relaese all this unpatened, then what stops you, me or an evil patent troll from patenting their generous gift to humanity, thus stiffling it?

Adam Munich

Fri Mar 18 2011, 10:46PM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

Where can I buy some and how much does it cost?

Martin King

Fri Mar 18 2011, 11:16PM

Registered Member #3040 Joined: Tue Jul 27 2010, 03:15PM
Location: South of London. UK
Posts: 237

Patrick wrote ...

If true this is so important.

Heres the problem I see: If what was said at the bottom is true that they intend to relaese all this unpatened, then what stops you, me or an evil patent troll from patenting their generous gift to humanity, thus stiffling it?

As far as I'm aware you can't patent something that's been released into the public domain.

Martin.

Patrick

Fri Mar 18 2011, 11:36PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

Martin King wrote ...

As far as I'm aware you can't patent something that's been released into the public domain.

Martin.

really!?

EDIT: Im not finding anything to support Martin's claim on patent law. I dont know much about this topic, if others could elaborate it would be appreciated.

Mike

Sat Mar 19 2011, 03:34AM

Registered Member #58 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:40AM
Location: Tri-Cities, Washington, US
Posts: 317

Regarding the patent issue, technically if its placed in a public domain where others can see it, then people (including the original inventor) may no longer patent it. But of course someone can still attempt to patent it and who knows how accessible the information that the inventor has put up and if the patent office finds it. (numerous other details etc, I am not a lawyer)

However im relatively certain superconductors.org is in good standing and widely known such that there shouldn't be patent concerns so long as they really did discover this first.

Anywho, this is awesome news!

Patrick

Sat Mar 19 2011, 04:13AM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

Mike wrote ...

Anywho, this is awesome news!

YES! It is!

Conundrum

Sat Mar 19 2011, 08:12PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Yeah, the requirement for thallium makes this fairly toxic but this may not be an issue for very thin layers (i.e. room temp SC based Josephon junctions and SQUIDs)

Interestingly the key here seems to be that the structure has to be laid down layer by layer so a ganged atomic force microscope based system might be useable in order to form a suitable lattice , the same sort of idea as the IBM Millepede but on a smaller scale.

-A

Mattski

Sun Mar 20 2011, 02:20AM

Registered Member #1792 Joined: Fri Oct 31 2008, 08:12PM
Location: University of California
Posts: 527

Anybody know how reliable a source superconductors.org is? He clearly has some idea what he is talking about, but since I don't know anything about superconductor science I can't say anything more than that yet.

Conundrum

Sun Mar 20 2011, 11:09AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Very reliable, it appears that Joe Eck is a genuine researcher and has made significant discoveries.

Shame that all the really high Tc materials need thallium, I would really like a piece of a >0C material to test.

-A

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