Super insulators are the materials that exhibit the reverse property of superconductor.That is super insulators will hold a charge forever, whereas a superconductor will pass a current forever.Actually superinsulating property are created on the materials which exhibit superconducting property.
Discovered by: Valerii Vinkur, Tatyana Baturina and collegues.
At temperature close to absolute zero,super insulators have a resistance 100,000 times higher than that at room temperature.Scientists prepared the superinsulator on a very thin film of Titanium Nitride.The film can act as superconductor or superinsulator depending on the thickness of the film.The film which just on the side of insulating side of transition stage when undergone a decrease in temperature or magnetic field suddenly transformed into a superinsulator.
The property is explained with the same principle as that of the superconductor.In superconductors, the electrons join together to form Cooper pairs.When these Cooper pairs of electrons join together in long chains enables the unrestricted motion of electrons and easy flow of current.But in superinsulators the Cooper pairs stay seperate from each other forming self-locking puddles.
Applications: The superinsulators store charge forever,so that they can be employed to make moe efficient electric circuits in conjuction with superconductors.That i when supply is "on" the current can pass through the zero resistance suprconductor and when supply is "off" the superinsulator can be swithced into circuit so that the charge loss through air can be eliminated.
Storage cells leak their stored charge when they are left exposed to air for a long time because air is not a perfect insulator.Using superinsulators we can prevent this.