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Attend a new study led by mechanical engineering and physics and astronomy. Professor Ranga Dias, objective: to create superconducting materials at room temperature. Now it is possible to achieve superconductivity only after very cold cooling of the material, as we see in the photo from R. Dias’ laboratory, where the magnet hangs over a superconductor cooled by liquid nitrogen.
The work featured on the cover of Nature magazine was done by R. Dias, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy. in the professor’s lab.
Dias says that creating superconducting materials at room temperature, which have no electrical resistance and displace the magnetic field, is the “holy grail” of condensed matter physics. These materials, which have been sought after for over a hundred years, “can really change the world we know,” says Dias.
VIDEO: Researchers synthesize superconducting material at room temperature
R. Dias’ team of researchers set a new record by photochemically combining carbon with hydrogen and sulfur in simple organic carbonated sulfur hydride (CH₈S), which was compressed very strongly with a diamond anvil.
In carbon dioxide hydride, superconductivity occurred at a temperature of about 58 ° F (288 K, 1414 ° C) and a pressure of about 269 GPa. This is the first time a superconducting material has been captured at room temperature.
“Due to such low temperature limitations, materials with such special properties have not yet transformed the world as many imagined. However, our discovery will break down these barriers and open the door to many potential uses, ”says Dias, who also contributes to high-energy-density physics and materials science programs at the same university.
Possible applications:
- Power lines with up to 200 million megawatt hours (MWh) of energy lost through resistance.
- A new way to power levitation trains and other vehicles.
- Medical imaging and scanning techniques such as MRI and magnetography
- Faster and more efficient electronic technology for digital logic and memory devices.
“We live in a semiconductor society, and such technology can lead us to a superconducting society where things like batteries won’t be needed,” says Ashkan Salamat, a co-author of the discovery at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
The amount of superconducting material created by a diamond anvil is measured in picoliters, which is roughly the size of inkjet ink droplets.
Another challenge is finding a way to produce a superconductor at room temperature at a lower pressure so that it is economical to produce in large quantities.
Why is room temperature important?
The first phenomenon in physics, superconductivity, discovered in 1911, confers two most important properties on materials: the disappearance of electrical resistance and the displacement of the material’s magnetic field by the Meissner effect. The magnetic field lines must surround the superconductor, so such materials can levitate, which could be used for frictionless high-speed trains with the rails, so-called maglev (magnetic levitation) trains.
Powerful superconducting electromagnets are already critical in magnetic levitation trains, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR) machines, particle accelerators, and other advanced technologies, including early quantum computers.
But the superconducting materials used in these devices must be cooled to much lower temperatures than is naturally common anywhere on Earth. This makes its operation very expensive. “Storing these materials at cryogenic temperatures is so expensive that they cannot reach their full potential,” said Dias.
Last year, Mikhail Jeremec of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, and Russell Hemley’s group at the University of Illinois in Chicago, set the previous record for the highest superconducting temperature. This team reported reaching superconductivity of lanthanum superhydride at -10 to 8 ° F (-23.3 to -13.3 ° C).
In recent years, researchers have tested copper oxides and iron-containing compounds as potential candidates for high-temperature superconductors. But hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, also looks promising.
“To get a high-temperature superconductor, you need stronger connections and lighter elements. These are the two most important criteria, ”emphasizes Dias. Hydrogen is the lightest substance and the hydrogen bond is one of the strongest.
“The high Debye temperature of metallic hydrogen and the strong pairing of electrons and phonons are theoretically assumed to be the necessary conditions for superconductivity at room temperature,” says Dias.
However, the conversion of pure hydrogen to metal, which was first performed in 2017 by Professor Isaac Silvera of Harvard University (USA) and R. Dias, who was working in his laboratory at the time in a postdoctoral program requires very high pressure.
Paradigm shift
Thus, Dias’ laboratory at the University of Rochester made a “paradigm shift” as an alternative to using hydrogen-rich materials that mimic the difficult-to-access superconducting hydrogen phase and can be metallized at much lower pressures.
Initially, the laboratory combined yttrium and hydrogen. The resulting yttrium superhydride superconductor was then returned to a record temperature of 1212 ° F (approximately -11 ° C) and a pressure of approximately 26 million psi (approximately 1.8 million atmospheres).
Subsequently, the lab examined hydrogen-rich covalent organic compounds.
From here came carbonic sulfur hydride. “Coal plays a vital role here,” say the authors of the discovery. Also, “blending the composition” could probably achieve even higher temperatures, they add.
R. Dias and A. Salamat have formed a new composition, Unearthly Materials, which will look for ways to create superconductors at room temperature at an affordable pressure.
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