Are you doubting that they’ve achieved high temp (very cold room temp) superconductivity, or just doubt that what they’ve done has any practical application?
I remember s presentation at 2018 aps in portland about changes to matter at extremely high pressures. Sulfur dioxide, sodium, etc. 100s Gpa acheived momentarily by high explosives creating things like superconductivity at room temperatures. Very interesting stuff. Id like to understand superconductivity better. A lot of cart before horse, derived vs fundamdntsl confusion in the explanations ive seen so far imo.
When Fleischmann and Pons first came out with their “discovery” of cold fusion, I was so intrigued that I spent two weeks learning about electrochemistry, and combining it with what I knew about quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. I wrote up a 19 page assessment for my employer, TRW, which concluded that this was something worth at least exploring. The write-up included a brief paragraph which speculated about the hydrogen densities seemingly achievable in the palladium cathode, and mentioned in an off-hand way that perhaps it could result in a high temperature superconductor. Well, one of the top management keyed in on that one sentence, and I was tasked with setting up an IR&D program to investigate high-temperature superconductivity, when the real gold lay in the prospect of “simple” nuclear energy. We were able to demonstrate a 6% decrease in resistivity at room temperature, but gave up the program when everyone else tossed cold fusion into the trash.
Just last year, though, I ran across an article that related the discovery of superconductivity in “high temperature” hydrogen-loaded palladium. I think it was 77 K, which isn’t sizzling, but it’s more readily achieved than the near absolute zero temperatures of many superconductors. The phenomenon was totally unexpected, at least by the researchers who found it. I wonder if they somehow got hold of my IR&D report. Anyhow, I have to give some credit to my management for letting me pursue even that.
One possibility is that you can maintain considerable pressure by embedding the substance in a crystal like diamond, boron nitride, silicon carbide, etc. For example, ringwoodite is a mantle mineral (that forms 325-410 miles down) that was found in a rare diamond in Brazil as an inclusion – indicating that for however long the diamond was on the surface before being found, that this mineral had been kept stable.
Reading around it appears that ringwoodite can remain stable indefinitely around 20 GPa (gigapascals). Meanwhile 75% of Earth’s pressure at the center is around 270 GPa. So it appears that this natural diamond was able to maintain an internal pressure of about 7% of the pressure described in the article for extremely long periods of time.
I believe I have found a description of the kimberlite field where this diamond was found.
In contrast, zircons from the newly discovered Chapadão kimberlites have a mean 206Pb/238U age of 93.6 ± 0.4 Ma, corresponding to a time of magmatic activity related to the opening of the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean.
So this diamond in question may have kept a mantle mineral intrusion stable by maintaining pressures of at least 20 GPa for 93 million years!
So my WAG is take diamond powder and place it around the superconductor material in a configuration that will deform under the desired ridiculous pressure to the desired configuration. Heat and sinter the diamond in place around the superconductor. Then heat temper the diamond/superconductor mass. Then gradually back off the pressure.
No idea how much pressure a diamond could maintain internally under that or if there would be a contamination by the carbon of the diamond with the superconductor material.
*Snort* When I saw Metallic Hydrogen…
Are you doubting that they’ve achieved high temp (very cold room temp) superconductivity, or just doubt that what they’ve done has any practical application?
I remember s presentation at 2018 aps in portland about changes to matter at extremely high pressures. Sulfur dioxide, sodium, etc. 100s Gpa acheived momentarily by high explosives creating things like superconductivity at room temperatures. Very interesting stuff. Id like to understand superconductivity better. A lot of cart before horse, derived vs fundamdntsl confusion in the explanations ive seen so far imo.
When Fleischmann and Pons first came out with their “discovery” of cold fusion, I was so intrigued that I spent two weeks learning about electrochemistry, and combining it with what I knew about quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. I wrote up a 19 page assessment for my employer, TRW, which concluded that this was something worth at least exploring. The write-up included a brief paragraph which speculated about the hydrogen densities seemingly achievable in the palladium cathode, and mentioned in an off-hand way that perhaps it could result in a high temperature superconductor. Well, one of the top management keyed in on that one sentence, and I was tasked with setting up an IR&D program to investigate high-temperature superconductivity, when the real gold lay in the prospect of “simple” nuclear energy. We were able to demonstrate a 6% decrease in resistivity at room temperature, but gave up the program when everyone else tossed cold fusion into the trash.
Just last year, though, I ran across an article that related the discovery of superconductivity in “high temperature” hydrogen-loaded palladium. I think it was 77 K, which isn’t sizzling, but it’s more readily achieved than the near absolute zero temperatures of many superconductors. The phenomenon was totally unexpected, at least by the researchers who found it. I wonder if they somehow got hold of my IR&D report. Anyhow, I have to give some credit to my management for letting me pursue even that.
One possibility is that you can maintain considerable pressure by embedding the substance in a crystal like diamond, boron nitride, silicon carbide, etc. For example, ringwoodite is a mantle mineral (that forms 325-410 miles down) that was found in a rare diamond in Brazil as an inclusion – indicating that for however long the diamond was on the surface before being found, that this mineral had been kept stable.
Reading around it appears that ringwoodite can remain stable indefinitely around 20 GPa (gigapascals). Meanwhile 75% of Earth’s pressure at the center is around 270 GPa. So it appears that this natural diamond was able to maintain an internal pressure of about 7% of the pressure described in the article for extremely long periods of time.
I believe I have found a description of the kimberlite field where this diamond was found.
So this diamond in question may have kept a mantle mineral intrusion stable by maintaining pressures of at least 20 GPa for 93 million years!
So my WAG is take diamond powder and place it around the superconductor material in a configuration that will deform under the desired ridiculous pressure to the desired configuration. Heat and sinter the diamond in place around the superconductor. Then heat temper the diamond/superconductor mass. Then gradually back off the pressure.
No idea how much pressure a diamond could maintain internally under that or if there would be a contamination by the carbon of the diamond with the superconductor material.