PNNL researches superconducting aluminum to replace copper or use in cars

Gasgoo News For now, in the power industry, copper is king.According to foreign media reports, new research from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) may change that.The lab offers a way to increase the conductivity of aluminum, making it more economically competitive than copper.The research opens the door to experiments that, if successful, could provide a superconducting aluminum alternative to copper.This aluminum can be used in markets other than power transmission lines, revolutionizing cars, electronics and power grids.

(Image credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Replacing copper with more conductive aluminum, which is lighter, cheaper and more abundant, would have a huge impact, the researchers said.

copper and aluminum

Currently, the growing demand for copper is rapidly exceeding its supply, leading to higher costs.As a good conductor, copper is used in a wide variety of applications, including handheld electronic devices and underwater transmission cables that power the Internet.However, copper is becoming scarcer and more expensive, which cannot be ignored.This trend is expected to become more severeaselectric vehicles continue to develop, as twice as much copper is used in electric vehicles as in conventional vehicles.In addition, copper is heavy and can also affect the efficiency of electric vehicles.

The price and weight of aluminium is two-thirds lower than that of copper.However, the conductivity of aluminum is relatively low, only about 60% of that of copper, limiting its practical application.

PNNL researcher Keerti Kappagantula said: "Conductivity is critical because motors and other electronic components can be designed to be lighter by using lightweight wires with equal conductivity, which can extend the range of the car. Anything that runs on electricity Everything can be made more efficient as a result, such as car electronics, energy generation, and charging the car battery at home through the grid.”

Improving aluminum's conductivity will be a game changer

Kappagantula explained: "For many years, researchers believed that it was impossible to improve the conductivity of metals. However, this is not the case. If you change the structure of a metal, and introduce suitable additives, you can indeed affect its properties."

To understand how much aluminum's conductivity can be improved, Kappangantula, PNNL postdoctoral scholar Aditya Nittala, teamed up with Ohio University distinguished professor David Drabold and graduate student Kashi Subedi to determine the effect of temperature and structural defects on aluminum's conductivity, and developed a A recipe that can control individual atoms one by one to improve conductivity.

Since such molecular simulations have never been performed on metals, the researchers hope to find inspiration in semiconductors.Because some previous studies have successfully simulated the conductivity of these silicon-based materials and some metal oxides.The team applied these concepts to the study of aluminum and simulated what would happen to the metal's conductivity if individual atoms in the aluminum structure were removed or rearranged.These tiny changes add up to a massive increase in conductivity overall.

The model's ability to simulate a real-world environment surprised even the team."We didn't expect these results to be so close to reality," Kappagantula said. "This model simulation, based on the atomic structure and its different states, is able to achieve a high degree of accuracy."

Now, the researchers have identified a theoretical way to change the conductivity of the metal, and plan to understand the specific improvement in aluminum's conductivity in the laboratory, so that the theoretical value matches the experimental results.In addition, the possibility of improving the conductivity of other metals through the same simulation process is discussed.

The team expects that developing aluminum, which is more conductive, will have far-reaching implications.This superconducting aluminum is affordable and lightweight, and if successful, all applications that use electricity or copper will benefit.