A recent discovery in a study of room-temperature superconductivity, if borne out, could make the dream of super-efficient long-distance electricity transmission and levitating trains a little closer to reality.

Whereas physicists understand how standard superconductors can operate at nearly 275 degrees Celsius below water's freezing point, the mechanism behind high-temperature superconductors, which function at up to 140 degrees warmer than absolute zero, remains mysterious. Without knowing exactly how these warmer substances would manage to conduct electricity with zero resistance, researchers still don't know whether it's possible for anything to be superconductive at comparatively hot room-temperature conditions—which is what a new study claims.

According to a paper in Advanced Materials, cheap and easily obtainable graphite powder exhibits signs of superconductivity. And it doesn't need to be chilled with an expensive cryostat system—all it takes to make the powder superconductive is a simple water bath.

Pablo Esquinazi and other physicists from the University of Leipzig first discussed graphite as a potential superconductor in a 2012 paper published on arXiv, an electronic archive of preprint scientific papers. (The researchers have also made their new paper available there.) Certain parts of the material showed signs of the Josephson effect, when electrons tunnel between a barrier separating two superconductors. The effect indicated that the graphite samples contained superconducting areas.

"Due to this and the work we did the last three years, we were sure that superconducting patches could be possible," Esquinazi says. To test this notion the researchers treated graphite powder with water: They stirred it into the liquid for 23 hours, filtered it out and dried it at 100 degrees Celsius. Then they tested how the water-treated powder responded to a changing magnetic field.

Graphite, along with other materials, has held out the promise of room-temperature superconductivity before. For years there have been reports of weak, indirect superconducting signals coming from graphite treated with elements such as sulfur and oxygen. But nobody, not even these researchers, has been able to produce a definite room-temperature superconductor, a material that repeatedly meets the textbook definition of superconductivity—the conduction of electricity with zero resistance.

There are, however, other characteristics that mark a superconductor: A material typically becomes superconductive when it passes a temperature threshold and undergoes a distinct phase transition. The Josephson effect is another sign of superconductivity, and there is also the Meissner effect, also known as diamagnetism: When exposed to an external magnetic field, a superconductor pushes that field away so it doesn't penetrate the material. The magnetic field inside the superconductor will be less than the field outside. This effect makes it possible for superconductors to levitate, and it also creates detectable changes in the external magnetic field, providing a measurable sign of superconductivity.

The physicists tested their treated graphite powder for diamagnetism by measuring its magnetization as it was exposed to a changing magnetic field. And it responded as if a fraction of the sample was indeed superconducting—but only a tiny fraction of 0.01 percent.

23 Comments

1. 1. FuSci 08:01 PM 9/17/12

   Incredible, this find is! If only we could create a large-scale version of this form of energy, we would lose our need for the search of new efficent energy sources! How to do it? I'll leave it up to the scientists. Good luck!

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2. 2. feyrkh 08:19 PM 9/17/12

   @FuSci: This is not a way to create electricity, it's a way to transmit electricity more efficiently. It would reduce a great deal of wasted power, but it is not a replacement for more efficient/cleaner sources of electricity.

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3. 3. FuSci in reply to feyrkh 08:30 PM 9/17/12

   Of course, of course. What I mean is because of the ease at which this superconductor operates, we could do much more with much less energy. But yes you are correct, thank you for your correction.

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4. 4. Al Toti 09:55 PM 9/17/12

   Perhaps at the edge of certain plates?

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5. 5. FuSci in reply to vulvox 03:13 PM 9/18/12

   Poisoning how? Could you please explain this to me in a condensed form? I'm only a sixteen-year-old that enjoys science.

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6. 6. Energy4All 04:05 PM 9/18/12

   This definitely bears further investigation. The implications are significant.I looki forward to more material from this group.

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7. 7. donschandel in reply to vulvox 04:27 PM 9/18/12

   your comment made me think, what if its not the graphite, what if when its stimulated by the water molecules the properties changes certian graphite molecules to react in a different manner? It could be a graphite molecule that has an extra ? or could it be in a more purer form of graphite. Just a thought!

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8. 8. David Russell 06:02 PM 9/18/12

   I have been preaching, yelling, screaming, ranting for the last 10 years nano, graphine, graphite, diamonds anything but burning carbon. I hope this gets some due attention.
   
   There was an article about a year ago stating the fact that graphine showed tunneling characteristics 100% of the time and then nothing. Will this turn out to have the same fate. We have a lot of carbon in this country. Hell even separating O2 from CO2 creates graphine but for some reason we keep looking at expensive rare earth metals or Helium based cooling for SC. In case anybody hasn't noticed He is now 3 times higher because it use to be a by product of natural gas drilling and is not being acquired at the previous rates. Additionally China is the main source for rare earth metals and has been busy buying or leasing Africa for any they may have.
   
   So why not look at Sulfur, Iron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen and Hydrogen as a cheaper quicker way to reach cheap energy that is clean? What is it going to take to see the LED?

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9. 9. Plain-2009 07:30 PM 9/18/12

   This is quite interesting indeed.
   I watched the video in the link provided.
   It is really amazing what these nice chaps from Israel are doing (Tel-Aviv University) with the support of the Israel Ministry of National Infrastructure(www. quantumlevitation.com)
   They say, I think, this effect of quantum locking has been known for around 100 years. the XIX century was really great for Physics.
   If we combine what we see (with incredible eyes)in the demonstration provided by these nice guys from blessed Israel with what we read in this article it seems that may be one of this days we hit pay dirt.
   If we can create superconductivity and levitation at room temperature the benefit for human kind could be enormous.
   We can take energy from the sun and store it with no leakage.
   We can transfer electricity at long distances with no loss of energy.
   And probably we will have no need (or less need) of transferring electricity to long distances since we can create it at the point of use and store it.
   We can create vehicles that consume less fuel and very probably many other things.
   This knowledge (generally speaking at first sight)should not be patented and belongs to the human kind.
   Probably a limited patent can be granted for recovering investment for a few years.
   In general we should move into a patentless world.
   Of course I am not talking about being unfair.
   It is really fantastic both this article and the demonstration by these young enthusiastic, part scientists part magicians, from Israel.
   Congratulations to them, to the room temperature superconductivity scientists,and to Scientific American for bringing us the information.
   Good news indeed! If we go on studying physics one day we may travel to the stars!
   
   

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10. 10. SigmaEyes 09:13 PM 9/18/12

    I wonder what such superconductors could do for electric motors.
    
    1.Switching copper with carbon. Copper always was expensive, but now it is surprisingly expensive.
    
    2.More powerful motors in smaller packages. I remember the early auto eclectic window motors that quickly faded with a few years of age. Now the new motors are so much more powerful and last so many years longer due to stronger magnets. Imagine the graphite wires being the magnetic source, and rotating in a water jacket of some sort of helix design.
    
    Its conceivable to me that motors strong enough to run clothes washing machines could operate from power sources not much more powerful than a few alkaline flashlight batteries.
    
    I think the article was unbiased. It put the claim in perspective of prior claims, and general scientific opinion. I hope the research leads to some benefits, though.

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11. 11. iqsoft 01:13 AM 9/19/12

    Big Typo !!!
    
    "275 degrees Celsius below water's freezing point" would make it 2 degrees below absolute 0K, which is impossible to achieve. Thank God high temp superconductors work at much higher temperatures than that.
    Iqbal

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12. 12. gadda 11:10 AM 9/21/12

    On December 6, 2011, Superconductors.ORG announced the discovery of the first true room temperature superconductor (Tl5Pb2)Ba2Mg2Cu9O17+ (28°C)
    
    http://www.superconductors.org/rtsc2mkt.htm
    
    Letters were written proposing a professional collaboration with numerous manufacturers. Most did not even acknowledge receipt of the letter.

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13. 13. markorman 04:35 PM 9/21/12

    If there are superconducting particles of graphite, and they can levitate in a magnetic field, can this be used to separate out these particulates so that they can be concentrated?

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14. 14. plain&simple 05:11 PM 9/21/12

    Ok. Is this April Fool's day? Has someone invented a time machine and I haven't heard about it?
    
    Graphite treated with water is diamagnetic????
    
    It's diamagnetic right out of the box. Google it. Pull your copy of Hnbk of Chem and Phys off the shelf! It's extremely diamagnetic ...and you don't do anything to make it that way. Will someone be able to confirm this "experiment"?
    
    This better than the Pons and Fleischmann thing! (except it -LENR- might actually have substance)

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15. 15. iqsoft in reply to FuSci 06:19 PM 9/21/12

    There is a glaring typo in this article.
    Here it is: "standard superconductors can operate at nearly 275 degrees Celsius below water's freezing point, "
    Now 2 things surprise me. 1-How can a reputed site like sciam not correct this after 24 hours and 2-How can so many apparently educated readers not have seen it.
    

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16. 16. Science Fan 10:05 PM 9/21/12

    They said that only 0.01% demonstrated the properties attributable to superconductors after the 23 hour water bath. I wonder what the percentage of nanotubes or buckey balls is in graphite, and whether treating them with water might somehow get water entrained in the tubes? Might the percentage of another allotrope of carbon in graphite be around 0.01%? Nothing passes through graphene except water? Maybe graphite has about 0.01% graphene of a specific size? Just thinking out loud.

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17. 17. physmom 02:27 AM 9/24/12

    A large claim must have large proof. The only proof of RT SC woud be: 1) R=0 (no resistance measurements); 2) M vs T showing true diamag -- not a glitch on the paramagnetic part; 3) gets repeated overnight in many labs. 100 ppm not convincing when there are so many diamagnetic materials out there. Remember Andy Geim's Ig nobel prize?
    
    THis has taken too much ink space and time.

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18. 18. bucketofsquid in reply to iqsoft 01:15 PM 9/26/12

    Some of us don't use the Kelvin scale and have little to do with Celsius so the translation from 1 scale to the other is meaningless to us. It has nothing to do with being educated and everything to do with area of specialization.
    
    Proper review during editing should have caught the problem so many of us glossed over inaccuracies that are not relevant or meaningful to us.

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19. 19. iqsoft in reply to bucketofsquid 02:17 PM 9/27/12

    did you know that the challenger shuttle disaster was just because of this attitude towards SI units? A rubber gasket had dimensions in SI units and the US technicians were either illiterate about SI or had this lackadaisical outlook. With the result that the O ring was a bad fit.
    At high pressures during flight, the O ring failed. And US space initiative received a huge setback.
    So keep it up guys, while we overtake you in technology.

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20. 20. FuSci in reply to iqsoft 02:41 PM 10/9/12

    Alot revolves around units. It's also why the mars probe a while back smashed straight into the side of the planet. Meters per second and feet per second are totally different.
    

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21. 21. FuSci in reply to bucketofsquid 02:46 PM 10/9/12

    Thats stupid. Im glad you're no the one building my space shuttle. Thank you for showing some intelligence on this blog iqsoft.

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22. 22. FuSci 02:47 PM 10/9/12

    I meant "not the one"
    

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23. 23. Steven 08:54 PM 1/14/13

    If there is a tiny amount of superconductivity at room temperatures, perhaps there would be more at lower temperatures.

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