PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

FSU engineers improve performance of high-temperature superconductor wires

FSU engineers improve performance of high-temperature superconductor wires
2021-04-15
(Press-News.org) Florida State University researchers have discovered a novel way to improve the performance of electrical wires used as high-temperature superconductors (HTS), findings that have the potential to power a new generation of particle accelerators.

An image of Bi-2212, bismuth-based superconducting wires. (Mark Wallheiser/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) Researchers used high-resolution scanning electron microscopy to understand how processing methods influence grains in bismuth-based superconducting wires (known as Bi-2212). Those grains form the underlying structures of high-temperature superconductors, and scientists viewing the Bi-2212 grains at the atomic scale successfully optimized their alignment in a process that makes the material more efficient in carrying a superconducting current, or supercurrent. Their work was published in the journal Superconductor Science and Technology.

The researchers found that the individual grains have a long rectangular shape, with their longer side pointing along the same axis as the wire -- a so-called biaxial texture. They are arranged in a circular pattern following the path of the wire, so that orientation is only apparent at very small scale. Those two properties together give the Bi-2212 grains a quasi-biaxial texture, which turned out to be an ideal configuration for supercurrent flow.

"By understanding how to optimize the structure of these grains, we can fabricate the HTS round wires that carry higher currents in the most efficient way," said Abiola Temidayo Oloye, a doctoral candidate at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) and the paper's lead author.

Superconductors, unlike conventional conductors such as copper, can transport electricity with perfect efficiency because electrons encounter no friction while traveling in the superconducting wire. Bi-2212 wires belong to a new generation of high-field superconductors for building superconducting magnets, which are crucial tools for scientific research at labs around the world, including the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory where the team of researchers conducted their experiments.

High-temperature superconductors like Bi-2212 can conduct current at much higher magnetic fields than low-temperature superconductors (LTS) and are a key part of the designs for even more powerful particle accelerators at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

"We optimized the Bi-2212 round wires to carry more current, while keeping in mind the scale difference between the lab and manufacturer," Oloye said. "The process we develop in the lab has to scale to the manufacturing level for the technology to be commercially viable and we were able to do that in the study."

Previous work done by Fumitake Kametani, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, MagLab researcher, and principal investigator for the study, showed the importance of quasi-biaxial texture in Bi-2212 round wires for currents. This paper continued the premise and demonstrated the factors needed to achieve optimal quasi-biaxial texture.

"The microstructural characterization used is unique in analyzing the crystal structure of Bi-2212 round wires," Kametani said."The technique is usually used for analyzing metals and alloys, and we have adapted it to develop novel sample preparation methods to further the optimization of Bi-2212 HTS wire technologies."

The big-picture goal is to be able to use Bi-2212 round wires in future high-field magnet applications.

"Since it is the only high-temperature superconductor available in round wire form, the material can more easily replace existing technologies using LTS wires made from other materials," Oloye said. "Other HTS such as REBCO and Bi-2223 are only available in tape form, which adds a layer of complexity to magnet design."

INFORMATION:

Researchers from the FSU-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and CERN contributed to this research.

The work was funded and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida.


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
FSU engineers improve performance of high-temperature superconductor wires

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Understanding the growth of disease-causing protein fibres

Understanding the growth of disease-causing protein fibres
2021-04-15
Amyloid fibrils are deposits of proteins in the body that join together to form microscopic fibres. Their formation has been linked to many serious human diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Type 2 diabetes. Until today, scientists have been unable to reliably measure the speed of fibril growth, as there have been no tools that could directly measure growth rate in solution. However, researchers from the UK's University of Bath and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source have now invented a technique that does just that. Results from their study are published in RSC Chemical Biology. "This is an important breakthrough, ...

Small physician offices are seeing negative effects from virtual health care models

2021-04-15
In a newly released study, researchers found that remote and virtual care models can negatively impact small physician offices. Three researchers from END ...

Child Mind Institute's CRISIS survey yields insights to psychological impact of COVID-19

2021-04-15
To better understand the psychological and physical impact caused by the profound consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic - and also inform priorities for interventions and policy changes to address the mental health consequences of the pandemic -- researchers from the Center for the Developing Brain at the Child Mind Institute developed and deployed the CoRonavIruS health and Impact Survey (CRISIS). This questionnaire covered key topics relating to mental distress and resilience during the pandemic. According to a newly-published manuscript of the findings, perceived risk of COVID-19, prior mental health status, and lifestyle changes were key predictors of mental health during the pandemic in adults and children surveyed in the U.S. and U.K. In the study, supported by the Morgan Stanley ...

Agricultural trade across US states can mitigate economic impacts of climate change

Agricultural trade across US states can mitigate economic impacts of climate change
2021-04-15
URBANA, Ill. - Agricultural producers deal firsthand with changing weather conditions, and extreme events such as drought or flooding can impact their productivity and profit. Climate change models project such events will occur more often in the future. But studies of the economic consequences of weather and climate on agriculture typically focus on local impacts only. A new study from the University of Illinois looks at how changes in weather - including extreme events - may decrease crop profit in one state while increasing profits in other states. The secret ingredient: U.S. interstate trade. It is expected to mitigate ...

Nuclear DNA from sediments helps unlock ancient human history

Nuclear DNA from sediments helps unlock ancient human history
2021-04-15
The field of ancient DNA has revealed important aspects of our evolutionary past, including our relationships with our distant cousins, Denisovans and Neandertals. These studies have relied on DNA from bones and teeth, which store DNA and protect it from the environment. But such skeletal remains are exceedingly rare, leaving large parts of human history inaccessible to genetic analysis. To fill these gaps, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology developed new methods for enriching and analyzing human nuclear DNA from sediments, which are abundant at almost every archaeological site. Until now, only ...

The Internet brings people into big cities, new study suggests

2021-04-15
The widespread proliferation of the internet and information and communication technologies (ICT) has drawn people into urban centres, according to new research. Despite being able to access data at the drop of a hat or speak face-to-face to people on the other side of the world, the evolution of technological capabilities hasn't led to an exodus from cities. In fact experts at the University of Bristol have found quite the opposite; that the increased adoption of ICT has resulted in national urban systems - cities within a country - that are characterised by higher population concentrations. ...

Latest Neuropixels probes can track neurons over weeks

2021-04-15
A new generation of miniature recording probes can track the same neurons inside tiny mouse brains over weeks -- and even months. The new tools build on the success of the original Neuropixels probes released in 2017 and currently used in more than 400 labs. Neuropixels 2.0 are much smaller -- about a third the size of their predecessors. They're designed to record the electrical activity from more individual neurons and have the unique ability to track this activity over extended time periods. That makes them especially useful for studying long-term phenomena like learning and memory in small animals such as mice, says Tim Harris, a senior fellow at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus who led the project. Harris and his colleagues describe the advance in a paper published online ...

UCI-led study uses plankton genomes as global biosensors of ocean ecosystem stress

2021-04-15
Irvine, Calif., -- By analyzing gains and losses in the genes of phytoplankton samples collected in all major ocean regions, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have created the most nuanced and high-resolution map yet to show where these photosynthetic organisms either thrive or are forced to adapt to limited quantities of key nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. As part of the new Bio-GO-SHIP initiative, the UCI scientists made eight deployments on six different research vessels, spending 228 days at sea in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. They generated nearly 1,000 ocean metagenomes from 930 locations around the globe, with an average distance between collection points at 26.5 kilometers (about 16.5 miles). ...

Process simultaneously removes toxic metals and salt to produce clean water

Process simultaneously removes toxic metals and salt to produce clean water
2021-04-15
University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered a way to simplify the removal of toxic metals. like mercury and boron. during desalination to produce clean water, while at the same time potentially capturing valuable metals, such as gold. Desalination -- the removal of salt -- is only one step in the process of producing drinkable water, or water for agriculture or industry, from ocean or waste water. Either before or after the removal of salt, the water often has to be treated to remove boron, which is toxic to plants, and heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, which are toxic to humans. Often, the process leaves ...

The Hunger Games: Uncovering the secret of the hunger switch in the brain

2021-04-15
Being constantly hungry, no matter how much you eat - that's the daily struggle of people with genetic defects in the brain's appetite controls, and it often ends in severe obesity. In a study published in Science on April 15, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, together with colleagues from the Queen Mary University of London and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, have revealed the mechanism of action of the master switch for hunger in the brain: the melanocortin receptor 4, or MC4 receptor for short. They have also clarified how this switch is activated by setmelanotide (Imcivree), ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation

ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy

How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet

Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice

Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast

Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds

The experts that can outsmart optical illusions

Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk

Scientists uncover novel immune mechanism in wheat tandem kinase

Three University of Virginia Engineering faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

Unintentional drug overdoses take a toll across the U.S. unequally, study finds

A step toward plant-based gelatin

ECMWF unveils groundbreaking ML tool for enhanced fire prediction

[Press-News.org] FSU engineers improve performance of high-temperature superconductor wires