| Red wine can make a wonderful conducting substance |
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Center for Materials Superconductors of the National Institute Japanese team of the of Materials Science (NIMS) has managed to make a super conducting iron-based alloy by dipping it in wine red Superconductivity is a distinguishing of certain materials within which, below a temperature called critical electrical resistance disappears and the magnetic field vanishes. Such materials, called superconductors, are of particular interest since they allow the movement of electricity without loss of energy Their applications are numerous, especially in the field of transport (magnetic levitation trains), the energy storage (flywheel), etc..The first phenomena of superconductivity has been observed for extremely low temperatures near absolute zero (-273.15 ° C or 0 K). However the high temperature super conducting materials were discovered in 1986. The term "high" remains very concerning (the maximum critical temperature is 133 K, or -140.15 ° C). Increasing the critical temperature allows uses to less low temperatures and thus greatly simplifies the cooling structures of materials. The NIMS team has worked since 2008 on super conducting materials based on iron in the hope of finding new materials with high critical temperature. Among the candidates is an alloy of iron, tellurium and sulfur, FeTe0, 8S0, 2, which has characteristics when manufactured super conducting fusion. However, when produced by chemical reaction solid, it behaves like an ant ferromagnetic body. He still loses this property to become super conducting when exposed to air for several months. Thinking that this phenomenon is the product of a reaction with water and oxygen air, researchers have tried to immerse the material in pure water, pure ethanol or a mixture both without success. The NIMS team has subsequently tried to deposit the material for 24 hours in wine and then heat it. He became a superconductor with a critical temperature of 8 K. Repeating the experiment with other wines and alcohol showed varying degrees obtained that superconductivity is not related to the level of alcohol in the drink, similar results have been obtained with beer, whiskey and sake. Note that the best results were obtained with red wine, the less good with schose , whose composition is close to the water-ethanol mixture. The reaction mechanisms into play remain unknown to researchers. It may be a component in wine eases the introduction of oxygen atoms between the layers of the structure to two dimensions of FeTe0, 8S0, 2. They count in any case continue their work to try to explain the phenomenon and apply it to discover new materials with higher critical temperature. |
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