Niobium-tin
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Niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) is a metallic chemical compound of niobium (Nb) and tin (Sn), used industrially as a type II superconductor. It is more expensive than niobium-titanium (NbTi), but can withstand magnetic field intensity values up to 30 T, whereas NbTi can withstand only up to roughly 10 T. Mechanically, Nb3Sn is extremely brittle and thus can not be easily drawn into a wire, which is necessary for winding superconducting magnets. To overcome this, wire manufacturers typically draw down composite wires containing ductile precursors (Nb and Sn or Nb and a Sn source like copper-tin bronze).
Its critical temperature is 18.3 kelvins (K). It is usually used at 4.2 K, the boiling point of liquid helium.
The central solenoid and toroidal field superconducting magnets used in the ITER fusion reactor use niobium-tin as a superconductor.
Nb3Sn was discovered to be a superconductor in 1954.
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