298K Superconductivity where are you?

Richard Saam ([Only registered users see links. ]) wrote:
: Hi All:

: Now that we have the electrical power distribution infrastructure
: strained to performance limits and in much need of replacement
: enhancement, where is the promise of superconductivity as hyped 15 years
: ago.

: Liquid nitrogen cooled YBCO in pipes just will not do.

: Conceptually we need something like environmentally innocuous carbon
: strands produced at a few thousand dollars per ton with Tc = 298 K and
: critical current at 10^5 amp/cm^2. Nothing on the horizon resembling this.

I'm still waiting for "Mr. Fusion" from Ron Popeil.

--
--
William "Dave" Thweatt
Robert E. Welsh Postdoctoral Fellow
Chemistry Department
Rice University
Houston, TX
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[Only registered users see links. ]

"William David Thweatt" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message
news:bhrf7a$2b7$[Only registered users see links. ].edu...
this.

Last heard low tension HTS cable experiments being conducted by Detroit
Edison.

Then there's the possibility of a maximally resistant wire.
"Richard Saam" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message news:vUq0b.105309$[Only registered users see links. ].worldnet.att.net...


no wrote:

Terry Wilder wrote:
"William David Thweatt" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message
news:bhrf7a$2b7$[Only registered users see links. ].edu...
Richard Saam ([Only registered users see links. ]) wrote:
: Hi All:

: Now that we have the electrical power distribution infrastructure
: strained to performance limits and in much need of replacement
: enhancement, where is the promise of superconductivity as hyped 15 years
: ago.

: Liquid nitrogen cooled YBCO in pipes just will not do.

: Conceptually we need something like environmentally innocuous carbon
: strands produced at a few thousand dollars per ton with Tc = 298 K and
: critical current at 10^5 amp/cm^2. Nothing on the horizon resembling
this.
I'm still waiting for "Mr. Fusion" from Ron Popeil.

--
--
William "Dave" Thweatt
Robert E. Welsh Postdoctoral Fellow
Chemistry Department
Rice University
Houston, TX
[Only registered users see links. ]
[Only registered users see links. ]
Last heard low tension HTS cable experiments being conducted by Detroit
Edison.

This company is testing a superconducting surge protector for
the power grids. They had $6MM funding from the DOE by 8/14:
[Only registered users see links. ]
I just ran across the following reference:

[Only registered users see links. ]

"The resistance transitions observed in several multi-wall nanotube
ropes are consistent with Tc's of about 700 Kelvin. A big bundle of
superconducting MWNT's can [actually] levitate a rare-earth magnet."

- Guo-Meng (Peter) Zhao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physics,
California State University at L.A

Superconductivity in carbon nano tubes is claimed to 700K.
Thats what it will take to get proper functional superconductivity at 298K.
The Patent attorneys are getting involved.
It will take forever.
Let the acronyms fly - MWNT & RTSC
Maybe some creative person in Monrovia can do it.

Richard Saam

William David Thweatt wrote:

William

As I understand it, isn't there a major carbon nano tube pilot plant
under construction there at Rice in association with Smalley et al?
Something like $50,000,000 to spend and anticipated production on the
order of kilograms / day.

It would seem to be a natural place to "mine" some potential
superconductor material. Perhaps the "raw" nano tube powdered material
from the reactor could be sent through a magnetic gradient separator
taking advantage of Meissner effect to segregate any superconducting
entities.

Remember that the history of superconductivity has a air of serendipity
about it. Ask Dr. Paul Chu about his experience with combinations
permutations in the basement of some University of Houston lab.

All has evoked passion which has tapered off since the initial days in
the late 80's. At that time there was a Robert Welsh meeting in
Houston, in which there was tremendous verbal energy interchange between
the physicists and chemists about the mechanism of superconductivity.

Anyway, "mining" the pilot plant carbon nano tube pile may be an
approach that may yield superconductor results.

Richard Saam LCDR USNR RET PE
Corpus Christi, Texas
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Richard Saam ([Only registered users see links. ]) wrote:

: William David Thweatt wrote:

: >Richard Saam ([Only registered users see links. ]) wrote:
: >
: >: I just ran across the following reference:
: >
: >: [Only registered users see links. ]
: >
: >: "The resistance transitions observed in several multi-wall nanotube
: >: ropes are consistent with Tc's of about 700 Kelvin. A big bundle of
: >: superconducting MWNT's can [actually] levitate a rare-earth magnet."
: >
: >: - Guo-Meng (Peter) Zhao, Ph.D.
: >: Assistant Professor of Physics,
: >: California State University at L.A
: >
: >: Superconductivity in carbon nano tubes is claimed to 700K.
: >: Thats what it will take to get proper functional superconductivity at 298K.
: >: The Patent attorneys are getting involved.
: >: It will take forever.
: >: Let the acronyms fly - MWNT & RTSC
: >: Maybe some creative person in Monrovia can do it.
: >
: >I'll have to bounce that Tc of nanotubes thing off the people here at
: >Rice. Dr. Curl is my boss. I bet he'd know something about nanotubes...
: >
: William

: As I understand it, isn't there a major carbon nano tube pilot plant
: under construction there at Rice in association with Smalley et al?
: Something like $50,000,000 to spend and anticipated production on the
: order of kilograms / day.

You know, I'll have to check. That's not really my bag. I think they
just sputter Fe nanospheres on a Si substrate, then CVD the nanotubes
from the Fe spheres. Apparently, the ethylene enters the Fe sphere. The
hydrogens fall off and are sucked out the turbo pump. The carbons migrate
through the sphere, then form the nanotube on the other side.



--
--
William "Dave" Thweatt
Robert E. Welch Postdoctoral Fellow
Chemistry Department
Rice University
Houston, TX
[Only registered users see links. ]
[Only registered users see links. ]

Richard Saam ([Only registered users see links. ]) wrote:

: Dave

: I did a Chemical Engineering News search on this. Faster than looking
: through my stack of magazines. The reference is as follows:

: *****************
: NEWS OF THE WEEK
: BUSINESS
: October 8 , 2001
: Volume 79, Number 41
: CENEAR 79 41 p. 11
: ISSN 0009-2347


: Nanotube Firm Building Pilot Plant

: ANN THAYER

: Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. (CNI) has signed an engineering services
: contract with engineering firm Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) , part of
: Halliburton , to build a pilot plant for producing single-walled carbon
: nanotubes. Houston-based CNI was founded early last year by Rice
: University professor and Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley , former
: Lyondell Petrochemical CEO Bob Gower, and others from Rice University to
: commercialize carbon nanotubes.

: MOVING UP Smalley, in front of a carbon nanotube laboratory reactor
: brought from Rice, speaks at "groundbreaking" for CNI's new pilot plant .

: The pilot plant, to be completed by the end of this year at KBR's
: Houston technology center, will produce 200 to 300 g per day. Process
: improvements to upgrade production efficiency are expected to increase
: that to about 1 kg per day by mid-2002.

: CNI intends to be much more than a manufacturer of exotic materials,
: anticipating that it will participate in carbon nanotube product and
: market development. "The game is now afoot," Smalley says. "We think we
: can turn this into something real."

: CNI will use production from the new plant in collaborative development
: projects. Electronic uses, such as flat-panel displays or
: electromagnetic shielding, are expected to be among the nearest term
: applications. The company says it hopes it will be facing the need for
: commercial-scale production in 18 to 24 months.

: The company has also found a new home, moving off the Rice campus and
: now leasing office and laboratory space at KBR's technology center. In
: April, it received funding of $15 million from chemical industry and
: high-technology entrepreneurs Gordon Cain and William McMinn.

: ***************

: Do you know if this project is producing carbon nanotubes (1 kg per day
: by mid-2002) as projected??

: The idea would be then to get a large amount of this material, and then
: attack it like Madame Curie dug into that pile of pitchblende, perhaps
: with a magnetic separation device obtain a small amount of the room
: temperature superconducting material like Seaborg with the plutonium
: microgram on the planchet and then scale up with Manhattan type
: project. This all assumes that the starting material contains the broad
: spectrum of fullerenes from spherical to tubular form and nested inside
: each other in units one to very large.

: Richard Saam PE
: Corpus Christi, Texas

I don't know much about it yet. I just got here two months ago, and I'm a
theoretician who recently got into gas-phase combustion kinetics. I can
ask around. Can you email me?

--
--
William "Dave" Thweatt
Robert E. Welch Postdoctoral Fellow
Chemistry Department
Rice University
Houston, TX
[Only registered users see links. ]
[Only registered users see links. ]