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Now this is my type of superconductor !
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 8:29 pm
by D Tibbets
Another possible room temperature superconductor.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-200 ... =mncol;txt
Dan Tibbets
Re: Now this is my type of superconductor !
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:26 pm
by nogo
The material isn't normally superconductive, but can be after immersion in an alcoholic beverage
Alcohol enhances pair formation! (j/k)
The paper is about a mechanism for ion implantation (doping), likely oxigen implantation, by soaking the material in booze and heating it. Apparently some of the components other than water and alcohol are acting as catalysts.
Re: Now this is my type of superconductor !
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 10:52 pm
by Giorgio
Apart from te obvious jokes that this discovery can bring, I think this is darn interesting.
Re: Now this is my type of superconductor !
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:09 am
by nogo
Giorgio wrote:
Apart from te obvious jokes that this discovery can bring, I think this is darn interesting.
What it is not, however, is a room-temperature semiconductor. Unless your room happens to be at 7.8 Kelvin degrees :p
The heat is used to prepare the samples, not during superconductivity operation, which seems to have a critical temperature of about 10 K.
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:10 am
by happyjack27
while certainly an excellent location for an after party, the cryogenics lab is generally not a good place to leave your drink. though you can be almost certain of one thing: you'll never run out of ice.
be sure to clean up thoroughly in the morning, and TRY to put up everything back in the same place!
Don't forget to shut the tap...
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:50 pm
by Nik
Uh, I remember when some-one left the liquid air tap open. It overflowed their big dewar, ran across the floor and poured down the stair-well.
By the time they noticed, the tap was frosted up and would not close...
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:19 pm
by D Tibbets
happyjack27 wrote:while certainly an excellent location for an after party, the cryogenics lab is generally not a good place to leave your drink. though you can be almost certain of one thing: you'll never run out of ice...
Actually, liquid nitrogen is excellent for quickly cooling your beverage.
[Insert appropriate safety warnings here]
Dan Tibbets
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:23 pm
by ladajo
Lots of LN2 memories flooding back in here.
Exploding Dewars (never agitate when the lid retainers are loose), coke cans with the top cut off-filled up with LN2 and dropped in the harbour (little mushroom cloud generators), watching from the top in stunned curious horror as a full Dewar free falled 30ft down an access - and wondering what my buddy at the bottom was thinking before he fled. Flash freezing everything you can get your mitts on, and then experimenting with various kenetic energy xfer methods.
Another period of my life I sometimes wonder how I lived through.
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:09 pm
by MSimon
Lighting a cheap cigar after immersion in LO2 is a source of great amusement.
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:27 pm
by ladajo
Nope, haven't tried that one, but I do see the utility.
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:49 pm
by chrismb
Try lighting your bbq with LOX.
...I think, as an experiment, it falls somewhat short of 'successful':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:22 pm
by ladajo
Like beating on a primer with a hammer.