this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five
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A working room-temperature superconductor would have many, many applications.
Just for example:
Superconductors are currently used in MRI machines for medical imaging. They require cooling to extremely low temperatures. Today's MRI machines consume liquid helium to keep the superconducting components cold enough to function. A room-temperature superconductor would make MRI imaging vastly cheaper and more sustainable. (Helium is a limited resource; the planet ain't making any more of it.) It could even be cheap enough to replace medical X-rays.
Superconducting coils could be used in power systems, including generators and power storage systems, to increase their efficiency well above what can be done with today's copper coils.
It's less likely, but superconducting wires could be used in electronics of all sorts to reduce energy consumption, improve features like wireless charging, etc.