what are superconductors used for

1 year ago 80

Superconductors have many practical applications due to their ability to conduct electricity without resistance and repel magnetic fields. Some of the uses of superconductors are:

Efficient Electricity Transportation: Superconductors can be used as very efficient conductors, and if the national grid were made of superconductors instead of aluminum, the savings would be enormous. The US Department of Energy encourages the use of superconductors as energy-efficient devices.
Magnetic Levitation: Superconducting magnets are used in Japan and Germany to lift experimental magnetic levitation (maglev) trains above the rails, almost eliminating friction.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Superconducting coils make possible the very powerful electromagnets at work in some of the MRI machines used by doctors to examine soft tissue inside their patients.
Particle Accelerators: High-energy particle accelerators that physicists use to study atomic structures also use superconducting magnets.
Fast Electronic Switches: Type II superconductors can be used as very fast electronic switches, due to the way in which a magnetic field can penetrate into the superconductor.
Sensitive Magnetometers: Superconductors are used to produce sensitive magnetometers based on SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) .
Railguns and Coilguns: Superconductors are used to power railguns and coilguns, which are electromagnetic projectile launchers.
Cell Phone Base Stations: Superconductors are used to power cell phone base stations.
Particle Detectors: Superconductors are used in particle detectors.
Experimental Nuclear Fusion Reactors: Superconducting electromagnets are used in experimental nuclear fusion reactors.
Fast Digital Circuits: Superconductors can be used to build fast digital circuits.
Ultraefficient Electricity Grids: Room-temperature superconducting materials would lead to many new possibilities for practical applications, including ultraefficient electricity grids.