Conductors

A research team consisting of private sector and academic partners and led by NETL (a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers solutions for a clean and secure energy future) is working on a new ultra-conductive carbon (graphite and graphene) aluminum composite cable technology that could increase the electrical conductivity and strength of transmission cables leading to higher grid capacity and efficiency to accommodate future power generation demand.

In addition to NETL, the research team includes, Ohio University, MetalKraft Technologies, Frisk Alloy, Hydro Extensions, General Graphene Corporation and CONSOL Innovations.

Salgenx, developer of saltwater flow battery technology, has announced the expansion of its development of graphene and hard carbon-coated sand. Originally designed for use in advanced battery systems, Salgenx is now exploring a wide array of new applications for this innovative material, ranging from smart infrastructure to environmental sustainability.

The Company says that "the unique combination of graphene and hard carbon in a sand aggregate has the potential to transform the construction industry". By enhancing the electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, and durability of concrete, Salgenx’s carbon-coated sand opens up new possibilities in building and infrastructure development.

Professors Gil-Ho Lee and Gil Young Cho from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in South Korea have collaborated with Dr. Kenji Watanabe and Dr. Takashi Taniguchi from National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan to successfully control the quantum mechanical properties of Andreev bound states in bilayer graphene-based Josephson junctions using gate voltage. 

Superconductors exhibit zero electrical resistance under specific conditions such as extremely low temperatures or high pressures. When a very thin normal conductor is placed between two superconductors, a supercurrent flows through it due to the proximity effect where superconductivity extends into the normal conductor. This device is known as a Josephson junction. Within the normal conductor, new quantum states called Andreev bound states are formed, which are crucial for mediating the supercurrent flow.

Researchers from Japan's Tokyo Institute of Technology and Institute for Molecular Science recently investigated the impact of high-density Ca introduction to C₆CaC₆ - a graphene-calcium compound which exhibits high critical temperature. In this compound, a layer of calcium is introduced between two graphene layers in a process called intercalation. 

While this material already has high critical temperatures, some studies have shown that critical temperatures and therefore superconductivity can be further enhanced through the introduction of high-density Ca.

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Manchester, has achieved robust superconductivity in high magnetic fields using a newly created one-dimensional system. Achieving superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime has been a longstanding challenge, which this recent work aimed to address. 

The team followed the conventional route where counterpropagating edge states were brought into close proximity to each other. However, this approach was found to be limited. “Our initial experiments were primarily motivated by the strong persistent interest in proximity superconductivity induced along quantum Hall edge states,” explained University of Mnchester's Dr. Barrier, the paper’s lead author. “This possibility has led to numerous theoretical predictions regarding the emergence of new particles known as non-abelian anyons.”

Researchers from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have shown that when tungsten diselenide is added to graphene, graphene's electrical properties can be enhanced.

When two or more graphene sheets are stacked on top of each other, the resulting material can exhibit vastly different electronic properties depending on the alignment of those sheets in relation to one another. For instance, when the second sheet of graphene is "twisted" by just 1.05 degrees (a value known as the "magic angle") in relation to the sheet it is laid on top of, the resulting stack can be either a superconductor that conducts electricity with absolutely no resistance whatsoever or an insulator that completely blocks the passage of electricity. Research conducted in 2022 shows that even untwisted graphene bilayers can exhibit superconductivity. Untwisted bilayers of graphene are easier to fabricate in bulk than their twisted counterparts, but the superconductive state in these untwisted bilayers is more delicate, harder to tune, and only occurs at temperatures that are about a hundred times lower than in twisted structures (such temperatures typically can only be achieved through the use of liquid helium). The recent research shows a way to significantly improve upon this fragile superconductivity with tungsten diselenide.

Researchers from Ohio State University, The University of Texas at Dallas and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have reported new evidence of how graphene, when twisted to a precise angle, can become a superconductor, moving electricity with no loss of energy.

The team announced their finding of the key role that quantum geometry plays in allowing this twisted graphene to become a superconductor.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have directly measured, for the first time at nanometer resolution, the fluid-like flow of electrons in graphene. The results could have applications in developing new, low-resistance materials, where electrical transport would be more efficient.

Graphene is a pure electrical conductor, making it an ideal material to study electron flow with very low resistance. Here, the researchers intentionally added impurities at known distances and found that electron flow changes from gas-like to fluid-like as temperatures rise.

Researchers at MIT and National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have found a new and intriguing property of “magic-angle” graphene: superconductivity that can be turned on and off with an electric pulse, much like a light switch.

The discovery could lead to ultrafast, energy-efficient superconducting transistors for neuromorphic devices — electronics designed to operate in a way similar to the rapid on/off firing of neurons in the human brain.

Skoltech researchers have patented a method that enables producing arbitrarily shaped functional graphene components on a transparent substrate with 100-nanometer resolution, which could be especially suited for flexible and transparent electronics. The new approach reportedly helps avoid defects that arise during graphene transfer between substrates and strongly affect the material’s quality.

“Flexible and transparent electronics is typically associated with wearable biosensors that monitor vital signs, such as heart rate, breathing, and blood oxygenation, and relay them to a smartphone or fitness band,” Skoltech PhD student Aleksei Shiverskii, one of the inventors, said. “An affordable and efficient technology that at first may seem impractical soon becomes a ubiquitous and indispensable appliance, like a bluetooth electric kettle or a wifi vacuum cleaner. I believe that someday flexible and transparent electronics will become a fixture, too.”