New Metal Superconductor Holds Commercial Promise

A recently discovered superconductor, magnesium diboride, can easily carry large amounts of electrical current, scientists report today. The discovery could have great commercial significance. The new material was identified in January by Japanese scientists and is superconductive at the highest temperature--39 degrees Kelvin or -390 degrees F--of any metal yet known. The ceramic superconductors discovered in the early 1990s operate at higher temperatures, but researchers have had a difficult time fabricating them into wires and other devices that can carry high current densities.

A team from the Princeton University Metals Institute reports in today’s Nature, however, that similar problems are not observed with magnesium diboride. Although the metal is not superconductive at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, deemed necessary for commercial viability, researchers believe other metal diborides might work at higher temperatures.

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--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II