Two years after the discovery that magnesium diboride is a superconductor, engineers and entrepreneurs are keen to transform its properties into profit.
The discovery of superconductivity at 39 K in the metallic compound magnesium diboride two years ago created quite a stir. Since then, physicists and chemists have come a long way in understanding the curious set of circumstances that lead to such a high critical temperature in this widely available material. At the same time, metallurgists, engineers and entrepreneurs have been focusing on the commercial potential of magnesium diboride as superconducting wire, which was the subject of a one-day meeting in Cambridge, UK, in April.
Superconducting wire made from magnesium diboride could make “second- generation” electrical machines commercially viable.
Read this article, by Philip Sargent of Diboride Superconductors, in the June issue of Physics World.
