‘Red matter’ superconductor could transform electronics – if it works

Superconductivity at room temperature and pressure has been a central goal of materials science for over a century and may finally be achieved. If this new superconducting material holds up, it could revolutionize the way we power our world, but the results are first destined for serious scientific scrutiny.

If the material is superconducting, electricity will flow with zero resistance. That is, no associated energy is lost as heat. However, all superconductors ever made required very high pressures, and most required similarly high temperatures.

Ranga Diaz and his colleagues at the University of Rochester in New York claim to have created a material from hydrogen, nitrogen and lutetium that becomes superconducting at a temperature of only 21°C (69°F) and a pressure of 1 gigapascal. I’m here. This is nearly 10,000 times the atmospheric pressure at the Earth’s surface, but still much lower pressure than previous superconducting materials. “If you were on horseback in the 1940s and you saw a Ferrari pass in front of you, that’s the level of difference between the previous experiment and this one,” says Diaz.

To make the material, they put the three-element combination into a diamond anvil (a machine that compresses the sample to very high pressure between two diamonds) and squeezed. When the substance was compressed, its color changed from blue to red, so researchers called it the “red substance.”

The researchers then performed a series of tests examining the electrical resistance and heat capacity of the red material and its interaction with an applied magnetic field. All tests showed the material to be superconducting, they say.

However, not all researchers in this field are convinced. James Hamlin of the University of Florida said, “Perhaps they would have found something absolutely groundbreaking and groundbreaking in this research, something that would win a Nobel Prize, but I have some reservations. .

Part of his reservation, and that of other superconductivity researchers, stemmed from a controversy over a 2020 paper by Diaz and his team that claimed room-temperature superconductivity and was later retracted by a scientific journal. it was done. NatureAt the time, some questioned whether the data presented in the paper was accurate, and questioned how the published data were derived from raw measurements.

“Until the author provides an understandable answer to these questions, there is no reason to believe it. [the data] What is published in this paper reflects the physical properties of real physical samples,” said Jorge Hirsch of the University of California, San Diego.

One reason skepticism is so hard to persuade is that we don’t know enough about red matter to build a theoretical understanding of the mechanisms behind possible superconductivity. “We still have a lot of work to do to understand the exact structure of this material, which is very important for understanding how this material is superconducting,” says Dias. . “We hope that if we can manufacture it in large quantities, we will be able to better understand the material structure.”

If theorists can figure out exactly how and why this material becomes a superconductor, it would go a long way in convincing researchers that it is indeed a superconductor, and that red matter “The structure found in this piece is probably quite different. [from previously confirmed superconducting materials]says Eva Zurek of the University of Buffalo in New York. “The mechanism behind superconductivity in this compound could be different, but we don’t know for sure because we don’t have a structure to study.”

If an independent group were able to test the superconductivity of red matter and solve its structure, it could be one of the most influential scientific discoveries ever. Room-temperature, room-pressure superconductors could make power grids much more efficient and greener, and have far more potential, including supercharging magnetic levitation. “I think there are a lot of unimagined technologies that can take advantage of room-temperature, room-pressure superconductivity,” he says.

However, researchers are not yet dreaming of a superconducting society. “Obviously there will be a lot of scrutiny,” he says Hamlin. “I think the difference with previous results here is that this is at such a low pressure that many other groups can see this.” Only a few laboratories in the world have expensive and complex diamond anvils capable of reaching high pressures, but pressure cells reaching 1 gigapascal are relatively common.

That may be the biggest factor that distinguishes this study from the retracted 2020 paper. “Their previous work has not yet been replicated by an independent group, but this should replicate very quickly,” said Tim Strobel of the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, DC. “We are going to do this soon.” If all goes well, this could be the beginning of an energy revolution.