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What is a super conductor?is it possible to make it?what are the key elements?
Superconductor is an element, inter-metallic aloy, or comound that will conduct
electricity without resistance below a certain temperature. Resistance is undesirable because
it produces losses in the energy flowing through the material. Once set in motion, electrical
current will flow forever in a closed loop of superconducting material-making it the closest
thing to perpetual motion in nature.
Ceramic Superconductors were more mysterious superconducting systems have been
discovered. One is based on compounds centered around the "Fullerene". The fullerene
name comes from the late designer-author Buckminster Fuller. Fuller was the inventor of the
geodesic dome, a structure with a soccer ball shape. The fullerene - also called a
buckminsterfullerene or "buckyball" - exists on a molecular level when 60 carbon atoms join
in a closed sphere. When doped with one or more alkali metals the fullerene becomes a
"fulleride" and has produced Tc's ranging from 8 K for Na2Rb0.5Cs0.5C60 up to 40 K for
Cs3C60. In 1993 researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo reported Tc's
between 60 K and 70 K for C-60 doped with the interhalogen compound ICl. While no one
can predict what future discoveries will be made in the field of superconductivity, some
recent developments in the tungsten-bronze system suggest a new vista may be emerging.


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