Accession Number:

ADA010345

Title:

Search for a Room Temperature Superconductor,

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

ARMY MOBILITY EQUIPMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER FORT BELVOIR VA

Personal Author(s):

• Goldfein,Solomon

Report Date:

1973-04-01

Pagination or Media Count:

43.0

Abstract:

A new model for a room temperature superconductor based on clathrates and intercalation compounds is discussed. It is reinforced not only by findings of superconductivity yet to be confirmed in sodium cholate, sodium desoxycholate and lithocholic acid but also in vanadium-benzene and similar materials. An extrapolation of a plot of the value of transition temperature versus the average number of valence electronsnumber of atoms of the steroids showed that cholesterol, present in large quantities in the brain and walls of nerve cells, should be superconductive at room temperature. Cholesterol, however, does not have the complete postulated structure required. The biologists model for nerve cell impulse conductivity indicated that sodium ions were being shuttled back and forth across the cell membrane at a definite pulsed rate. These, by being stationed at key positions in the cholesterol channel, at the OH group, or both could satisfy the requirements for room temperature superconductivity. Possibilities for synthesizing a room temperature superconductor in accordance with the new model are discussed.

Descriptors:

• *SUPERCONDUCTORS
• *CHOLESTEROL
• *STEROIDS
• *CLATHRATE COMPOUNDS
• ROOM TEMPERATURE
• MOLECULAR STRUCTURE

Subject Categories:

• Atomic and Molecular Physics and Spectroscopy
• Solid State Physics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE