First Room-Temperature Superconductor Announced

Image Source: Julian Litzel (CC BY-SA 3.0)

South Korean scientists have allegedly created a superconductor that works at room temperature and regular pressure. This is a big deal because superconductors transmit electricity with zero resistance and have special magnetic properties that are very useful in technology. Normally, superconductors require extreme cold temperatures, but this new one can apparently work outside the lab under normal conditions. If it’s true, this discovery could change the world.

From IFLS:

There have been previous claims of room-temperature superconductivity that have not panned out. The researchers uploaded a paper to arXiv, and it is unclear if it was submitted for peer review to a journal. IFLScience has emailed them to learn more about the research and the new material, which is called modified lead-apatite or LK-99.

One crucial aspect of superconductivity is critical temperature, the temperature below which the material becomes superconductive. The value stated for LK-99 is 127°C ( 261°F), meaning it could easily be employed in all environments on Earth. If this is confirmed, it would not be the only room-temperature superconductor. But it would be the first to not require enormous pressures to work.

The team also recorded the critical current in the material, the lack of electrical resistance, the critical magnetic field, as well as the Meissner effect. This is the ability of a superconductor to expel the magnetic field during its transition leading to the capacity to repel nearby magnets, allowing the material to levitate. These properties led the team to claim that LK-99 is indeed a superconductor.

“All evidence and explanation lead that LK-99 is the first room-temperature and ambient-pressure superconductor. The LK-99 has many possibilities for various applications such as magnet, motor, cable, levitation train, power cable, qubit for a quantum computer, THz Antennas, etc. We believe that our new development will be a brand-new historical event that opens a new era for humankind,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

From those interested, the paper is available at arXiv.

[IFLS]