- For decades scientists have been in search of a superconducting material—a material that doesn’t experience electrical resistance–that can operate at room temperature and ambient air pressure.
- So far, many claims of success have been made, and none have panned out. But a new paper suggests that another contender has entered the ring.
- Although such a discovery would be a major breakthrough, other scientists are still skeptical about this latest superconducting claim.
The discovery of a superconductor—a material that experiences no electrical resistance—that can operate without extremely cold temperatures or extremely high pressure would fundamentally change the world. Such a monumental breakthrough would drastically lower the cost of technologies like MRIs, deep space radio antennas, and vitally important fusion reactors while unleashing a whole new era of computers, wireless communication, and transportation. In other words, it’d be a very big deal.
Maybe that’s why many material physicists around the world were curious, but skeptical when scientists from both Virginia’s College of William & Mary and the Quantum Energy Research Centre in South Korea announced that they’d successfully created a room-temperature, ambient pressure superconducting material. The results were published on arXiv preprint server ( meaning that the work hasn’t yet been peer reviewed), but College of William & Mary physicist Hyun-Tak Kim told New Scientist that he encourages any other lab to replicate his work.
The material, called LK-99, is a mixture of several powdered compounds that contain lead, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus—all heated at incredibly high temperatures until it forms a dark gray solid. The millimeter-sized sample reportedly demonstrated superconductive capabilities by allowing electricity to pass through it nearly unimpeded at around 85 degrees Fahrenheit and at ambient air pressure. Big, if true. A video also shows the material partially levitating above a magnet, a known property of superconducting materials (see: maglev trains).
While some online heralded the discovery as “generational,” many scientists have expressed skepticism. Some spoke with New Scientist, saying that tell-tale signs of superconductivity—including a particular response to a magnetic field or a specific heat capacity—aren’t represented in the data. Others also cautioned that such results could arise from experimental errors and imperfections in the LK-99 sample itself. At the end of the day, the science world won’t know whether to “pop the champagne” until another lab (or, preferably, several) reproduce the results.
Apart from some missing data and the current lack of a peer review, skepticism is definitely warranted, because the search for a room temperature superconductor is experiencing a “boy who cried wolf” moment. Some scientists, including one high-profile example earlier this year, made similar claims of a breakthrough only for the discovery to ultimately fall to pieces. A report published today in The New York Times even alleges that some of the data was potentially falsified.
The scientific discovery of such a superconducting material is quite the siren song, as it all but guarantees a Nobel Prize and a hallowed spot among some of the most important discoveries in human history. For now, such a world-changing material has eluded scientists—but at the very least, it looks like there’s something new on the table to investigate.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
