A readily available metallic compound has unexpectedly turned into the latest breakthrough superconductor.
The compound, magnesium boride, known since the 1950s, is commonly used for some chemical reactions, but no one had ever tested whether it would become a superconductor at low temperatures, able to ferry electricity with virtually no resistance.
At a scientific conference in Sendai, Japan, in early January, researchers led by Dr. Jun Akimitsu of Aoyama-Gakuin University in Tokyo announced that magnesium boride was a superconductor and remained a superconductor at temperatures up to 389 degrees, or about 29 degrees warmer than any other simple metallic compound.
A report about their findings will be published in next week’s issue of the journal Nature.
Since the conference in Japan, researchers elsewhere have rushed to investigate the compound.
While other, more complex superconducting materials work at higher temperatures, magnesium boride is relatively inexpensive, raising hopes that it might eventually find applications in magnetic resonance imaging machines, more efficient power transmission lines as well as other electronic devices.
The material is also very light and appears to be easier to work with than the copper oxides in the so-called high-temperature superconductors.
Announcement of the high-temperature superconductors 15 years ago led to a nightlong series of scientific talks to a standing-room audience of physicists at the March 1987 meeting of the American Physical Society, an event that attendees still fondly refer to as the “Woodstock of physics.”
The enthusiasm about the magnesium boride findings is “less than that, but it’s still quite exciting,” said Crabtree, who is organizing a special session on the new superconductors that will be held at the physical society’s March meeting in Seattle.
