superconduction in different phases of matter

[bwanaaa]

All superconductors are solids in their superconducting state, this state of matter presently having only been observed well below the melting temperature of the solid. The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates,bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, BSCCO and yttrium barium copper oxide, YBCO point to the possibility that superconductors with a high superconducting transition temperature may not be conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductors. The highest temperature superconductor to date is mercury thallium barium calcium copper oxide (Hg12Tl3Ba30Ca30Cu45O125) superconducts at 135 deg kelvin (liquid nitrogen is 77 deg kelvin). The Meissner effect fails with Abrikosov vortices foming aroung non-superconducting channels in the material. While BCS superconductors exist in the solid state, the only exception known is metallic liquid hydrogen at ultrahigh pressures.

Some have argued that a superconducting charged Bose liquid may be found in a true liquid state of condensed matter at ambient pressure.

One experimental scenario outlined in fluid metal-ammonia solutions for stabilizing and observing a high-temperature superconducting liquid (ca. 230 K).

Does anyone here have any knowledge (preferably first or second hand from an experimental source) about liquid superconductors?

 

[silverpig]

You probably won't find anyone here who knows about it, but you could try over at physicsforums

 

[Cogman]

First, let me be VERY clear about this, I have never ever dealt with a superconductor, or even taken a school course studying superconductivity. So I could be WAY off in what I am about to say, This is just as far as googling, slashdot, and the Wikipedia have taken me.)

AFAIK, Superconductivity relies on a very tight bond of the electrons in each atom in the superconductive material. Rather then being a sea of electrons with each electron going its own direction, (pushing almost at random the electrons next to it) the electrons act in unison almost as if they where one electron. This lockstep nature is what gives a material its superconductive nature. Now, I would think that the nature of a liquid (all nucleus's moving in different directions) would pretty much destroy superconductivity. It may be possible that each atom moves in a lockstep pattern that allows the electrons to stay in a superconductive state, however, I have a hard time seeing such a material being discovered.

BTW, whenever you are taking almost verbatim something that someone else has said you should always reference it. Your opening statement is not your own.
http://www3.interscience.wiley...ract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

 

[BrownTown]

from my very limited understanding I have to agree with Cogman, a liquid (at least by the traditional definition) is by definition to random and chaotic to be a superconductor it would seem.

 

[bwanaaa]

indeed, i copied some lines out of an introduction of a scientific paper for background. the question however is mine. If their words sum up the background for my question, then i dont think it is bad, but i agree, i should have posted a link. Too bad in real life people are not that honest. Wouldn't it be great if there were an application for the iphone that did that? Rather like the application, Shazam. The microphone picks up a song, analyzes it, and tells you the title. I could simply have my iphone running and instantly know if what you said, has been said by anyone else before.

Now , THAT would be a killer app!

 

[bwanaaa]

from other reading, my understanding regarding superconduction indicates that it relies on phonons traveling through a medium. This energy wave carries the electrons in concert, just as a water wave carries a cluster of ice chunks-even though the ice chunks are free to move independently, they dont. I interpret your statement to imply that the presence of a crystal lattice is required for phonon transmission.

sorry i dont have references for this basic knowledge at my fingertips, but i did read it somewhere and dont remember the source.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

Originally posted by: Cogman
...It may be possible that each atom moves in a lockstep pattern that allows the electrons to stay in a superconductive state, however, I have a hard time seeing such a material being discovered.

That'd be a superfluid; He-3, or He-4 (H2 is suspected of displaying some properties). Therefore, I don't think 'liquid superconductors' is the correct description by the OP. Electron pairs in a superconductor have to have succinct channels or routes of their paths to follow. A liquid displaying quantum mechanical effects on the macro scale would be a superfluid. But they require temperatures much much lower than that of superconductors. Superfluids occur when a mass becomes so cold that the atoms of the mass literally overlap- the superfluid behaves as if it is one large atom, and displays very 'other-wordly' effects (like creeping out of a beaker, breaking of the pauli exclusion principle, shared quantized non-subatomic rotational momenta ).
Helium-3 is a result of fermion-type interactions/particles, described in BCS theory; whereas helium-4 is a result of boson-type interactions/particles, described in BEC theory. It's like superconductivity, except the atoms are ~phonons, rather than electrons.

 

[KIAman]

Wrong thread