A superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity without any resistance when cooled below a critical temperature, known as the critical temperature (Tc). This property allows superconductors to transport electrons from one atom to another without energy loss or heat generation. Superconductors achieve a state of “perfect conductivity” called superconductivity, where electric currents can flow indefinitely. Additionally, superconductors have the ability to expel magnetic fields, creating their own magnetic field that repels external forces, a phenomenon known as the Meissner effect. Superconductors are crucial in various applications such as MRI machines, maglev trains, particle accelerators, and quantum computers due to their unique properties[11][12][13][14].
Room temperature superconductors have been a subject of recent scientific interest and controversy. Researchers have made claims about materials like copper-substituted lead apatite (CSLA) exhibiting superconductivity at temperatures above room temperature. However, these claims have been met with skepticism and challenges in replication. The potential implications of room temperature superconductors are significant, offering possibilities like levitating vehicles and highly efficient electrical grids. Despite the excitement surrounding these claims, the scientific community remains cautious due to the complexities and challenges in confirming room-temperature superconductivity[1][2][3].
The most promising materials for achieving room-temperature superconductivity include highly pressurized lanthanum decahydride (LaH10) with a critical temperature of approximately 250 K at 200 GPa, nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride (NDLH) demonstrating superconductivity at 20.9 °C at 145,000 psi of pressure, and lanthanum-cerium polyhydride synthesized by scientists from Jilin University and other institutions, offering a compromise between lanthanum and cerium polyhydrides in terms of cooling and pressure requirements[7][8][9]. Promising materials for superconductors also include layered nickelates and carbon-boron clathrates[16][17]. Layered nickelates, a new class of superconductors, have shown potential due to their structure similar to cuprates but with nickel instead of copper.
These materials show potential for advancing the field of superconductivity towards room temperature applications. Needless to say, the team or person who discovers the first verifiable room temperature superconductor will be immortalized in science history for the contribution to humanity. There have been claims and even a paper published in Nature which was later retracted.
Here is the abstract of a retracted paper:
Abstract
One of the long-standing challenges in experimental physics is the observation of room-temperature superconductivity1,2. Recently, high-temperature conventional superconductivity in hydrogen-rich materials has been reported in several systems under high pressure3-5. An important discovery leading to room-temperature superconductivity is the pressure-driven disproportionation of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to H3S, with a confirmed transition temperature of 203 kelvin at 155 gigapascals3,6. Both H2S and CH4 readily mix with hydrogen to form guest-host structures at lower pressures7, and are of comparable size at 4 gigapascals. By introducing methane at low pressures into the H2S + H2 precursor mixture for H3S, molecular exchange is allowed within a large assemblage of van der Waals solids that are hydrogen-rich with H2 inclusions; these guest-host structures become the building blocks of superconducting compounds at extreme conditions. Here we report superconductivity in a photochemically transformed carbonaceous sulfur hydride system, starting from elemental precursors, with a maximum superconducting transition temperature of 287.7 ± 1.2 kelvin (about 15 degrees Celsius) achieved at 267 ± 10 gigapascals. The superconducting state is observed over a broad pressure range in the diamond anvil cell, from 140 to 275 gigapascals, with a sharp upturn in transition temperature above 220 gigapascals. Superconductivity is established by the observation of zero resistance, a magnetic susceptibility of up to 190 gigapascals, and reduction of the transition temperature under an external magnetic field of up to 9 tesla, with an upper critical magnetic field of about 62 tesla according to the Ginzburg-Landau model at zero temperature. The light, quantum nature of hydrogen limits the structural and stoichiometric determination of the system by X-ray scattering techniques, but Raman spectroscopy is used to probe the chemical and structural transformations before metallization. The introduction of chemical tuning within our ternary system could enable the preservation of the properties of room-temperature superconductivity at lower pressures. [18]
If you can reproduce the above with evidence, you can go down in the history of science and humanity as having changed the world for the better.
Citations:
[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/short-spectacular-life-viral-room-temperature-superconductivity-claim
[2] https://thequantuminsider.com/2024/01/04/its-back-researchers-say-theyve-replicated-lk-99-room-temperature-superconductor-experiment/
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02681-8
[4] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nature-retracts-controversial-room-temperature-superconductor-study/
[5] https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/09/the-room-temperature-superconductor-that-wasnt/
[6] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-648X/ac2864
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room-temperature_superconductor
[8] https://newatlas.com/materials/reddmatter-room-temperature-superconductivity/
[9] https://phys.org/news/2023-05-material-room-temperature-superconductivity.html
[10] https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/peer-reviewed-paper-discusses-room-temperature-superconductor.html
[11] https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainssuperconductivity
[12] http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/113.web.stuff/travis/what_is.html
[13] https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Superconductor
[14] https://builtin.com/hardware/superconductor
[15] https://www.livescience.com/superconductor
[16] https://phys.org/news/2021-10-superconductive-materials.html
[17] https://carnegiescience.edu/superdiamond-carbon-boron-clathrates-represent-promising-new-class-conventional-superconductors
[18] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33057222/
