Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level : Superconductivity
Mains level : Superconductors and their future uses
- Researchers from IISc Bengaluru have confirmed that the material they tested exhibits major properties of superconductivity at ambient temperature and pressure.
Superconductivity
- Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic flux fields occurring in certain materials, called superconductors, when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature.
- A material is said to be a superconductor if it conducts electricity with zero resistance to the flow of electrons.
- Until now, scientists have been able to make materials superconduct only at temperature much below zero degree C and hence making practical utility very difficult.
- They help build very high efficiency devices leading to huge energy savings.
Silver embedded gold matrix
- The material that exhibited superconductivity is in the form of nanosized films and pellets made of silver nanoparticles embedded in a gold matrix.
- Interestingly, silver and gold independently do not exhibit superconductivity.