A team of South Korean physicists say they have created the fabled room-temperature/ambient-pressure superconducting material that would revolutionize electricity and physics. Their studies have not yet been peer reviewed, but they have published two papers about it on the arXiv preprint server.
Scientists across the world have been trying for more than a hundred years to find a type of material that would conduct electricity without resistance. Discovery of such a material would revolutionize the electricity business because it would mean that large amounts of electricity would no longer be lost to heat dissipation as it flows along power lines. It would also transform the electronics business by eliminating the need for engineers to cope with heat dissipation causing problems in electronic devices.
In their two studies, the research team describes the new material, which they label LK-99, and how it was created. It was reportedly generated by a solid-state reaction between lanarkite (Pb2SO5) and copper phosphide (Cu3P). The reaction is described as transforming the mixture into a dark gray, superconductive material.
In their papers, the physicists claim to have tested samples of LK-99 as electricity was applied to it, and found its sensitivity fell to near zero. They also claim that in testing its magnetism, it displayed the Meissner effect—another characteristic of superconductivity. In such a test, a sample should levitate when placed on a magnet. The team has posted a video of the material partially levitating. They admit the levitation was only partial, but say that was because of impurities in the LK-99.
Their claim to have found the fabled superconducting substance triggered much excitement and skepticism among other scientists. Other claims by researchers to have found room-temperature/ambient-pressure superconductors over the past several years have uniformly failed to live up to those claims. This team of physicists has responded to skeptical reactions by urging others to repeat their production process to test their findings.
