Superconducting wire
Superconducting wire is wire made of superconductors. When cooled below its transition temperature, it has zero electrical resistance. Most commonly, conventional superconductors such as niobium-titanium are used, but high-Tc superconductors such as YBCO are entering the market. Superconducting wire's advantages over copper or aluminum include higher maximum current densities and zero power dissipation. Its disadvantages include the cost of refrigeration of the wires to superconducting temperatures (often requiring cryogens such as liquid helium or liquid nitrogen), the danger of the wire quenching (a sudden loss of superconductivity), the inferior mechanical properties of some superconductors, and the cost of wire materials and construction. Its main application is in superconducting magnets, which are used in scientific and medical equipment where high magnetic fields are necessary.
The construction and operating temperature will typically be chosen to maximise:
Low-temperature superconductor (LTS) wires are made from superconductors with low critical temperature, such as Nb3Sn(niobium-tin) and NbTi(niobium-titanium). Often the superconductor is in filament form in a copper or aluminium matrix which carries the current should the superconductor quench for any reason. The superconductor filaments can form a third of the total volume of the wire.
The normal wire drawing process can be used for malleable alloys such as niobium-titanium.
Vanadium-gallium (V3) can be prepared by surface diffusion where the high temperature component as a solid is bathed in the other element as liquid or gas. When all components remain in the solid state during high temperature diffusion this is known as the bronze process.
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