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Physicists from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Rochester have made a breakthrough in the long-sought search for a room-temperature superconductor, what they call the “holy grail” of energy efficiency.
The research team led by physicist Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester in collaboration with Ashkan Salamat, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UNLV, established room temperature superconductivity in a diamond anvil cell, a small research device. , portable and commonly used that allows the compression of tiny materials at extreme pressures, pressures found only in the center of the Earth.
Although the phenomena observed by the research team and reported today as a magazine cover story Nature It was at an early stage, or fundamental level, the discovery has implications for how energy is stored and transmitted. It could also one day change the way everyday technological devices, from laptops to MRI machines, are powered, how people and goods are transported, and how the entire society could operate in the future.
“It’s a revolutionary game changer,” said Salamat, who heads the Nevada Extreme Conditions Laboratory at UNLV, a newly formed multidisciplinary group exploring fundamental experimental, computational and engineering problems of materials under high pressure. “The discovery is new, and the technology is in its infancy and is a vision of tomorrow, but the possibilities are endless. This could revolutionize the power grid and change all devices that work electronically.”
Superconductivity is a remarkable quantum phenomenon as its distinctive properties include the ejection of magnetic fields and zero resistance electric flux, which means that the energy current passing through a circuit is infinitely and perfectly conducted, without power loss.
Since their first observation in 1911, scientists have observed superconductivity only at very low temperatures, temperatures within a few degrees of absolute zero (minus 273 degrees Celsius), which would make widespread and practical application unattainable. In 1968, however, scientists predicted that metallic hydrogen, accessed at very high pressures, could be the key ingredient in discovering superconductivity at or above room temperature.
“Due to the limits of low temperature, materials with such extraordinary properties have not transformed the world in the way that many might have imagined. However, our discovery will break down these barriers and open the door to many potential applications,” said Dias. . in a statement from the University of Rochester.
In Dias’s lab at the University of Rochester, the research team worked to chemically synthesize hydrogen in an effort to solve the century-old problem. Like a materials search engine, Salamat and Dias used the diamond anvil cell to scan through the temperature and pressure space to find the correct combination that would drive the hydrogen from carbon sulfur first to a metallic state and then further. to a superconducting state at room temperature.
The US power grid, Salamat notes, which is made up of metal cables, loses about $ 20 billion a year from dissipated current. Although a metal like copper has the least resistance of almost all metals, it is still strong. Running current through copper and other metals creates heat, and as a result, energy is lost (think of the heat coming out of the bottom of your laptop).
Superconductivity at room temperature would allow current to flow through a closed circuit forever, meaning no energy will be lost. In the distant future, such a state could allow a solar farm in the southwestern US to transport power to the East Coast without losses, or MRI machines, which currently need liquid helium to function, be deployed in war zones. It could change the way electronics are designed and manufactured, and it could revolutionize the transportation system.
The discovery of the superconductor at room temperature, Salamat said, was not what you would call a “eureka” moment, but rather, a methodical and directed effort by him and Dias. Your next step is to develop a protocol that will release pressure from these materials while preserving their superconducting properties.
To support their continued work on the problem, Dias and Salamat have started a new company, Unearthly Materials, to find a path to room temperature superconductors that can be produced at scale at room pressure.
“We live in a semiconductor society,” Salamat said. “With this type of technology, you can take society from a semiconductor society to a superconducting society.”
