Copper connotations

Copper wire, the current conductor of choice on a chip, is relatively fast, but not nearly as fast and energy-efficient as light. Electrons race across copper in the best systems at two to five gigabits of data per second; photons "imprinted" on a laser beam can move at five times that rate.

Key Specifications/Special Features: Polyester enameled copper clad aluminum wire (PEW)Resistant to high temperature: 155 degree CelsiusProduct standard: Q/320584PWE001-2007Property: resistant to heat, chemical, and wearApplications: current motor, small motor, and various electromagnetic winding of transformerDiversified machineDiameter of apply wires range: 2.80 to 0.10mmPacking: plastic bobbin cable

The highest transition temperature found up to now – the temperature below which a material becomes superconducting – was for a cuprate, a copper compound, and lies at 166 K (-107°C). The problem is that cuprates have a similar consistency to graphite, which we know from pencil leads. Cuprates are difficult to work mechanically; for example, attempts to produce long wires from them have hitherto been unsuccessful. Cuprates are also difficult to manufacture and are often toxic.

New Class of High-T Superconductors: since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1986, all had been a ceramic made up of lanthanum-barium-copper oxides. Earlier this year, there was a flurry of papers from a number of research groups that announced they had found a new class of high-temperature superconductors, ceramics made of lanthanum, iron, arsenic, oxygen, and fluorine. While their critical temperature is, by high-temperature superconducting standards, a not-so-hot 55 K, they have opened a new pathway into the mystery of superconductor research. Follow up work hasn't been able to determine whether these materials behave the same as their more familiar cuprate cousins.

The challenge is to find the right materials. The best structural metals in terms of resistance to hydrogen embrittlement are copper, aluminum, and stainless steel. Copper and stainless steel are relatively expensive and function well in some applications, while inexpensive, durable aluminum would make up the bulk of the metal in any long distance pipeline. The best plastic is high density polyethylene, one of the most common plastics made today.

PORTLAND, Ore.— ElectriPlast conductive polymer enables wiring that is 80 percent lighter than copper and yet has the same conductivity, according to its inventors Integral Technologies (Bellingham, Wash.).

The typical architecture of a UQM® motor consists of a stator winding employing a high pole count configuration, which allows for high copper utilization (minimizing energy loss and cost), and a hollow rotor upon which powerful rare earth permanent magnets are mounted on the outer circumference.

The New Zealand-made high temperature superconductor carries up to 10 times the current of copper wire of the same size, without energy loss. In a world-first, the New Zealand scientists have produced commercially viable superconductor wire and cable – reliable, robust and economical. It consists of strips of a new material thinner than paint and sheathed in metal.

The new iron-arsenic materials are the first relatively high-temperature materials that remain superconducting above a temperature of 50 K that don't contain copper; the copper materials are brittle.