Superconducting materials: Challenges and opportunities for large-scale applications

TL;DR

Superconducting materials have transformative potential for various high-tech applications, but their widespread use depends on overcoming challenges related to properties, manufacturing, and costs, with future opportunities focusing on power and magnetic technologies.

Contribution

This paper reviews the fundamental properties, manufacturing challenges, and current state of superconducting materials for large-scale applications, highlighting future development opportunities.

Findings

Superconductors enable high-efficiency power and magnetic systems.

Manufacturing and cost challenges limit large-scale adoption.

Advances in wire fabrication are crucial for practical applications.

Abstract

Superconducting materials hold great potential to bring radical changes for electric power and high-field magnet technology , enabling high-efficiency electric power generation, high-capacity lossless electric power transmission, small light-weighted electrical equipment, high-speed maglev transportation, ultra-strong magnetic field generation for high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems, the future advanced high energy particle accelerators, nuclear fusion reactors and so on. The performance, economy and operating parameters (temperatures and magnetic fields) of these applications strongly depend on the electromagnetic and mechanical properties, as well as manufacturing and material cost of superconductors. This perspective examines the basic properties relevant to practical applications and key issues of wire fabrication for practical superconducting materials, and describes their challenges and current state in practical applications. Finally, future perspectives for their opportunities and development in the applications of superconducting power and magnetic technologies are given.