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Science

New Paper Confirms Near-Room-Temperature Superconductivity In Wild, Hydrogen-Rich Material (gizmodo.com) 120

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: A team of physicists has published peer-reviewed results documenting near-room-temperature superconductivity in the hydrogen-rich compound lanthanum hydride. The team, led by physicist Mikhail Eremets from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, kicked off the most recent race for a high-temperature superconducting hydride in 2015, when they published a paper announcing the discovery of superconductivity at -70 Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit). In this most recent paper, the researchers placed a piece of lanthanum into an insulating ring, then placed it into a box full of pressurized hydrogen gas. They clamped the gasket between a pair of diamonds, and continued squeezing the diamonds until they hit the desired pressures, nearly 2 million times the pressure on the surface of Earth. Then, they hit the sample with a laser to form the lanthanum hydride. Finally, they take measurements to confirm they really created the material and that it's really a superconductor. The researchers detail two measurements in the paper: In one, they measure the resistance drop to zero at the -23 Celsius or -9.67 Fahrenheit temperature. In another, they notice that this temperature decreases in the presence of a magnetic field -- a clue that they were actually measuring the sample rather than something being wrong with their experimental setup.
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New Paper Confirms Near-Room-Temperature Superconductivity In Wild, Hydrogen-Rich Material

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  • I have a strong hunch it's not.
    • To give you some extra info, a Mech. E. just calculated for me that a cylinder of diamond with wall thickness 10cm can maintain that pressure in a 1cm diameter interior (with no safety tolerances). Diamond is very brittle, so you'd need a lot of engineering and possibly materials science research for this to ever be practically feasible. I'd guess that even my children won't see this being used in their lifetime.

    • Very very very impractical.

      That said, the existence of a room temperature superconductor at any pressure is extremely exciting because it might indicate ways to achieve practical room temperature superconductors which would have a wide range of extremely valuable applications.

      • But here is the good thing, it's been found out.
        Just like the microwave oven. Took something like
        20 years before it really started to take off as a legit
        home product ( 1968 it cost 400ish and new car was 2500 ish )
        now it's $68 bucks and 25,000 for a new car

  • That is wild! Although, I prefer the term 'near-Antarctic-temperature' superconductivity.

  • ... researchers placed a piece of lanthanum into an insulating ring, then placed it into a box full of pressurized hydrogen gas. They clamped the gasket between a pair of diamonds, and continued squeezing the diamonds until they hit the desired pressures, nearly 2 million times the pressure on the surface of Earth. Then, they hit the sample with a laser to form the lanthanum hydride.

    Can't wait to rig that up in my home. /sarcasm

    • Wait a second -- diamonds, high pressure, superconductivity, "gasket", ... I know what I'm proposing with.

  • Standard Temperature (0C) & Pressure (101.3kPa).

    Otherwise, these experiments are only interesting to people in the field.

    • Near-STP would do. If the superconductor requires a few atmospheres of pressure or cooling to a little below zero Celsius, it's quite practical: Just run your superconducting wire inside an insulated pipe and pump chilled water with a little antifreeze through it.

      This is still not a superconductor suitable for practical use. But it shows that progress is being made. That there is hope that, one day, a new material will be discovered that is truly practical. That would be truly revolutionary.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Standard Temperature (0C) & Pressure (101.3kPa).

      Otherwise, these experiments are only interesting to people in the field.

      No, we're going to let you sleep through the new era of room temperature superconductivity because you sound like a disgusting arrogant nerd.

      We're also going to draw cocks on your face with permanent marker while you're snoozing. When you wake up, everyone will call you "Dick Face" and you won't know why.

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      That's a stronger requirement than is needed. The temperature would be fine for many purposes. It's the pressure required that makes this only a lab curiosity (and possible pointer to stuff beyond).

      But anything that would work at the temperature of dry ice wouldn't have a problem with being insulated in many uses. (Liquid Nitrogen would probably still be the coolant of choice, because it's easier to handle than Liquid CO2 [which requires special pressures], but being a lot cooler than is needed would hel

  • New Paper Confirms

    In Soviet Union you were nothing without a paper too.

  • -70C is to "near room temperature" as Pluto is close to Earth and a trip there is feasible within the next X years. After all the universe is so much larger than the Solar System. Please... drop the marketing.
  • Superconductive materials can be considered a phase, so like water, if you increase the pressure, it increases the temperature it turns to ice. In many situations this applies to superconductors as well, so this isn't necessarily an unexpected effect. There are other factors, but this finding isn't very helpful UNLESS it also demonstrates a new family of superconducting materials (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_superconductor). New types of superconductors may help add to the understanding

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      I think it clearly *WAS* expected. You don't make something like that by accident. They must have predicted the result ahead of time and went to check out their theory. Then the details started being filled in...like after you make it you can raise the temperature a bit, but not too much. (I think -20 C was reported to be superconductive.) And you can ease the pressure a little, but not too much. (I forget how much, but it was still quite impressive.)

  • If they used gold pressed lanthanum instead of diamond pressed, they could trade it to the Ferengi once it lost its superconductivity.

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