Superconducting sapphire wires are as cool as they sound

Copper wire’s relatively cheap, pliable and might conduct electricity, but it’s hardly ideal. Powering cities requires cables meters wide and the metal loses plenty of energy as heat. Fortunately, a team from Tel Aviv University thinks it’s solved the issue. Borrowing a fiber of sapphire from the Oakridge National Lab in Tennessee, it developed a superconducting wire barely thicker than a human hair that conducts 40 times the electricity of its copper brethren. Cooled with liquid nitrogen, the sapphire superconductors carry current without heating up, that is key to their efficiency. The team is now engaged on practical applications of the technology — because it is so small and pliable (unlike previous superconductors) it would replace copper in domestic settings and its cold efficiency makes it perfect to transmit power long distances from green energy stations. The wire’s happening a worldwide tour at the moment and could touch down on the ATSC conference in Baltimore in October. Anyone who makes jokes about wires and Baltimore shall be asked to go away, politely.

Source

This post is tagged: domestic settings, oakridge national lab, practical applications, superconducting wire, tel aviv university