This is exactly what scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, are investigating: a new magnetic shield for spacecraft -superconducting magnesium diboride, or MgB₂.
For magnesium diboride, this occurs at a very cold temperature-around -248℃.
Yao, "Decomposition and oxidation of
magnesium diboride,' Journal of the American Ceramic Society, vol.
A small breakthrough came in 2001, when a well-known compound called
magnesium diboride was discovered to superconduct at 40 kelvins.
Akimitsu, Superdonductivity at 39 K in
magnesium diboride, Nature 410, 63-64(2001).
Researchers at the Aoyama-Gakuin University in Tokyo, in a letter to the journal Nature, reported finding superconducting properties in
magnesium diboride, a compound of magnesium and boride.
Most remarkable--and inexplicable--was how warm the compound, magnesium diboride, could get before its superconductivity disappeared.
So-called conventional superconductors, of which magnesium diboride is a member, typically become superconductors below 20 kelvins.
* A simple, readily available material called
magnesium diboride was found to conduct electricity without resistance at an unexpectedly high temperature, sparking a surge of research into the compound (159: 134 (*)).
Physicists in Japan have found superconductivity at a surprisingly high temperature in the simple, readily available metallic compound
magnesium diboride.