Researchers create first self-assembled superconductor
Building on nearly two decades' worth of research, a multidisciplinary team at Cornell has blazed a new trail by creating a self-assembled, three-dimensional gyroidal superconductor.
Building on nearly two decades' worth of research, a multidisciplinary team at Cornell has blazed a new trail by creating a self-assembled, three-dimensional gyroidal superconductor.
Superconductivity
Jan 29, 2016
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1759
New research from a team of scientists at the Cornell University Center for Bright Beams has made significant strides in developing new techniques to guide the growth of materials used in next-generation particle accelerators.
Analytical Chemistry
Apr 6, 2023
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1069
A novel magnet half the size of a cardboard toilet tissue roll usurped the title of "world's strongest magnetic field" from the metal titan that had held it for two decades at the Florida State University-headquartered National ...
General Physics
Jun 13, 2019
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2803
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new list published by the British Geological Survey, or BGS, ranks 52 of Earth's elements based on their risk of supply disruption. Andrew Bloodworth, from BGS, points out that the likelihood of the world ...
It may be significantly easier to design electronic components in future. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids have discovered that the electrical resistance of a compound of niobium and phosphorus ...
General Physics
Jun 22, 2015
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88
Brazil is the world's largest producer of niobium and holds about 98 percent of the active reserves on the planet. This chemical element is used in metal alloys, especially high-strength steel, and in an almost unlimited ...
Materials Science
Nov 22, 2019
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1366
The Short Model Coil (SMC) programme tests new magnet technologies with magnets about 30 centimetres long. The technology developed in the SMC will eventually help engineers build more powerful magnets for the Large Hadron ...
General Physics
Nov 18, 2013
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0
Charging and discharging a battery cell transforms its electrode material into a "super" material.
Materials Science
Sep 8, 2022
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286
(PhysOrg.com) -- The U.S. ITER Project Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has awarded two contracts totaling $33.6 million for 8,270 km of niobium tin strand and 4,795 km of copper strand for the Toroidal Field Conductor, ...
Plasma Physics
Oct 5, 2009
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0
A team of nanotechnology researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University has used friction force microscopy to determine the nanoscale frictional characteristics of four atomically-thin materials, ...
Nanophysics
Apr 1, 2010
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Niobium ( /naɪˈoʊbiəm/) or columbium (/kəˈlʌmbiəm/), is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It's a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite. The name comes from Greek mythology: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus.
Niobium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of the element tantalum, and the two are therefore difficult to distinguish. The English chemist Charles Hatchett reported a new element similar to tantalum in 1801, and named it columbium. In 1809, the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston wrongly concluded that tantalum and columbium were identical. The German chemist Heinrich Rose determined in 1846 that tantalum ores contain a second element, which he named niobium. In 1864 and 1865, a series of scientific findings clarified that niobium and columbium were the same element (as distinguished from tantalum), and for a century both names were used interchangeably. The name of the element was officially adopted as niobium in 1949.
It was not until the early 20th century that niobium was first used commercially. Brazil is the leading producer of niobium and ferroniobium, an alloy of niobium and iron. Niobium is used mostly in alloys, the largest part in special steel such as that used in gas pipelines. Although alloys contain only a maximum of 0.1%, that small percentage of niobium improves the strength of the steel. The temperature stability of niobium-containing superalloys is important for its use in jet and rocket engines. Niobium is used in various superconducting materials. These superconducting alloys, also containing titanium and tin, are widely used in the superconducting magnets of MRI scanners. Other applications of niobium include its use in welding, nuclear industries, electronics, optics, numismatics and jewelry. In the last two applications, niobium's low toxicity and ability to be colored by anodization are particular advantages.
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