Magnesium Diboride

... Magnesium diboride (MgB2) is a metal with some very special properties. At a temperature of 39 K1 (about -234s Centigrade), it becomes what is known as a superconductor. You may have heard that as metals decrease in temperature, their resistance decreases. How ever, in some materials, the pattern of a gradual decrease in resistance is broken (right2). In substances, such as MgB2, there is a 'critical temperature' (here denoted as Tc) at which the resistivity of the material drops suddenly to zero. This sudden drop to a complete lack of resistance is what defines a material as a superconductor. Superconductivity is a very useful property, and magnesium diboride is particularly useful because of the temperature at which it becomes superconducting. -234sC might seem pretty cold to you and I, but in superconductor terms it's especially warm. The majority of superconductors similar to MgB2 have a critical temperature of -269sC, or about 4

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