I’d be pretty happy with a superconductor that worked IN THE SHADE, much less one that could make your skin sizzle.

But carbon is already heavily involved in an intriguing number of different superconducting compounds – including things I worked on myself for a while. Planar graphite intercalated (layered) with alkali metals forms low-temperature superconducting compounds, and compounds of alkalis and buckyballs (C-60) make some reasonably high-temperature superconductors (30 K or so). There are also some organic chemicals with crystalline forms that superconduct at low temperatures.

Diamond’s structure is of course quite different from graphite or C-60; in fact the carbon atoms in diamond are a little further apart than those in the graphite layers (single vs. half-single/half-double bonds). But the binding is very strong, and that’s one factor that can conceivably lead to high-temperature superconductivity. You never know with this stuff until several researchers have been able to test it – interesting idea anyway.

Unfortunately, the experimental arrangement used for the measurements reported above could not be used to make accurate measurements to very high temperatures. However, by allowing the current through the diamond to heat it, it has been found that the superconducting phase was still stable at diamond temperatures as high as 50 to 80 °C.

So it’s not just limited to ‘room temperature’, which is important, because you wouldn’t want your superconducting device to stop working just because the sun shone on it for a while.

Wonder how long it’ll take to find out if this is for real or not?

Regardless, diamonds are a big scam. Their high price is an entirely artificial construct. There’s an excellent article from Atlantic Monthly about how the North American market was duped. To quote one paragraph:

The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever — “forever” in the sense that they should never be resold.

If diamond can be made to superconduct in very small quantities – in integrated circuits, for example – the applications are limitless.

But on larger scales, I wonder what would be cheaper, a diamond superconducting wire, or a ceramic superconductor with a cooling system?

Anyway, whether it’s practical or not, I’m sure it’s an important breakthrough – and will lead to a better understanding of usable superconducting materials, at least.

Could this mean the demand for, (and therefore price of) diamonds will go up? I assume this method would use artificial diamonds, so maybe not.