Superconductor Sets Record at 250 Kelvin, Researchers Report in Nature

This article was prepared from the source material provided, which cites a study published in Nature and a news release quoting researcher Vitali Prakapenka of the University of Chicago.

An international team of scientists has created a superconductor that operates at 250 Kelvin, or -23 degrees Celsius (-9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The result is nearly 50 Celsius degrees (84.6 Fahrenheit degrees) higher than the previous record for superconductivity.

Superconductors, first discovered in 1911, conduct electricity with zero resistance. Because no energy is lost in transmission, they could allow electricity generated in one place — a solar farm in a sunny region, for example — to be sent elsewhere without waste. The obstacle is that existing superconductors require extreme conditions, such as very low temperatures and high pressures, which limits their practical use.

That is why researchers worldwide have pursued a superconductor that works at room temperature. In the new study, the team describes creating a material called a lanthanum superhydride. By placing enormous pressure on a sample, they coaxed it to act as a superconductor at the record-high temperature.

"Our next goal is to reduce the pressure needed to synthesize samples, to bring the critical temperature closer to ambient, and perhaps even create samples that could be synthesized at high pressures, but still superconduct at normal pressures," researcher Vitali Prakapenka of the University of Chicago said in a news release.

The finding advances the long-running effort toward practical superconductivity, but the need for high pressure means the material is not yet suitable for everyday energy transmission. Further work is required to lower the pressure required and to approach ambient conditions.