A room-temperature superconductor? New developments(science.org)
science.org
A room-temperature superconductor? New developments
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/room-temperature-superconductor-new-developments
774 comments
> They also predict that substituting gold atoms into the Pb(1) site could lead to a material with very similar properties, which will be an extremely interesting idea to put to the test.
Since the base material is lead apatite, I had a random thought that maybe medieval alchemists trying to turn lead into gold just had it backward, as doping gold into lead might be a breakthrough. :-)
Since the base material is lead apatite, I had a random thought that maybe medieval alchemists trying to turn lead into gold just had it backward, as doping gold into lead might be a breakthrough. :-)
New replication video coming from China
https://twitter.com/lereguy/status/1686363900651151360
https://twitter.com/lereguy/status/1686363900651151360
This is exciting, but I try to maintain my composure. Good luck to all involved.
I didn’t know science could be such a thrilling spectator sport.
I didn’t know science could be such a thrilling spectator sport.
the dft results are definitely interesting, but i note that with the caveat that my background is in experimental condensed matter physics for materials like this and not theoretical, my understanding is that the dominant feature of the conclusions (the flat bands) is a necessary but not sufficient condition for superconductivity in the way the authors describe.
again, in experimental condensed matter physics it's acceptable to do a fine experiment and then throw in a half-baked "theoretical underpinning" to appease reviewers, so I wouldn't be surprised if the superconductivity turns out to be totally unrelated to the mechanism proposed in the paper. i would really like to see some more robust characterization work(biased because this is my background), hopefully some of the labs doing the replication studies can take a look at the juicy stuff
again, in experimental condensed matter physics it's acceptable to do a fine experiment and then throw in a half-baked "theoretical underpinning" to appease reviewers, so I wouldn't be surprised if the superconductivity turns out to be totally unrelated to the mechanism proposed in the paper. i would really like to see some more robust characterization work(biased because this is my background), hopefully some of the labs doing the replication studies can take a look at the juicy stuff
I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who thought that the DFT computational preprints were very promising.
Unfortunately, they also indicate that the desired substitution will be very hard to achieve — crucially, the "crush and separate the composite" suggestion a few commenters have made is unlikely to work, since the heterogeneity exists within the same crystal, depending on whether Cu substitutes into Pb {1} (good) or Pb {2} (bad) crystal sites. This may be why the very oblique synthetic approach favored by the authors — reacting copper phosphide with lanarkite, giving lots of copper sulfide byproduct — was needed to give interesting properties. Now that we have an idea of what to look for, though, it may be possible to derive other synthetic approaches with a clear idea of what particular sort of copper substitution should be achieved, and a way to determine if it was achieved.
Of course, there remains a possibility that all of this is a big mistake, but now it would have to be several correlated mistakes. It may be a long time until the necessary selective substitution is achieved in a high-quality bulk sample, so, going on this hypothesis, I do not expect a sudden rush of new technologies in the near-term.
Unfortunately, they also indicate that the desired substitution will be very hard to achieve — crucially, the "crush and separate the composite" suggestion a few commenters have made is unlikely to work, since the heterogeneity exists within the same crystal, depending on whether Cu substitutes into Pb {1} (good) or Pb {2} (bad) crystal sites. This may be why the very oblique synthetic approach favored by the authors — reacting copper phosphide with lanarkite, giving lots of copper sulfide byproduct — was needed to give interesting properties. Now that we have an idea of what to look for, though, it may be possible to derive other synthetic approaches with a clear idea of what particular sort of copper substitution should be achieved, and a way to determine if it was achieved.
Of course, there remains a possibility that all of this is a big mistake, but now it would have to be several correlated mistakes. It may be a long time until the necessary selective substitution is achieved in a high-quality bulk sample, so, going on this hypothesis, I do not expect a sudden rush of new technologies in the near-term.
I would be interested to see the daily order numbers on Sigma Aldrich's supplychain website for Lead II Oxide and Copper Phosphide powder in the last week....
I'm astounded that the MSM seems to be ignoring this ATM. I did a Google news search on LK-99 and saw nothing from major publications. A search on the NYTimes returned an article from 1974.
Failed attempt to replicate:
Semiconducting transport in Pb10-xCux(PO4)6O sintered from Pb2SO5 and Cu3P
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2307/2307.16802.pdf
Oooh, citogenesis in action.
I still have a very, very hard time understanding what all of this means. Is there an easy to understand explanation for a room temperature superconductor?
The major threads so far, in reverse order—have I missed any?
Huazhong University demonstrates LK-99 diamagnetism - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36953819 - Aug 1, 2023 (265 comments)
LK-99 crystal verified to be magnetically levitated (with video) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36953396 - Aug 1, 2023 (10 comments)
Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor LK-99 preprint revision 2 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36952894 - Aug 1, 2023 (272 comments)
Origin of correlated isolated flat bands in LK99 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36951815 - Aug 1, 2023 (196 comments)
Semiconducting Transport in LK99 reproduction attempt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36951140 - Aug 1, 2023 (245 comments)
LK-99: The live online race for a room-temperature superconductor - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36940323 - July 31, 2023 (619 comments)
Ask HN: Room temperature superconductor: what to expect? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36930707 - July 30, 2023 (61 comments)
“We are not cheating” (YH Kwon superconductor comments) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36929386 - July 30, 2023 (61 comments)
Korea Superconductor Papers Published ‘Without Consent’ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36927216 - July 30, 2023 (47 comments)
Argonne National Lab is attempting to replicate LK-99 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36916254 - July 29, 2023 (201 comments)
LK-99 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36897300 - July 27, 2023 (58 comments)
Superconductor news: What’s claimed, and how strong the evidence seems to be - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36881808 - July 26, 2023 (471 comments)
The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36864624 - July 25, 2023 (875 comments)
Edit: thanks to mystery user for emailing [email protected] to suggest we include the days, not just month/year, for fast-moving stories like this.
Huazhong University demonstrates LK-99 diamagnetism - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36953819 - Aug 1, 2023 (265 comments)
LK-99 crystal verified to be magnetically levitated (with video) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36953396 - Aug 1, 2023 (10 comments)
Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor LK-99 preprint revision 2 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36952894 - Aug 1, 2023 (272 comments)
Origin of correlated isolated flat bands in LK99 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36951815 - Aug 1, 2023 (196 comments)
Semiconducting Transport in LK99 reproduction attempt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36951140 - Aug 1, 2023 (245 comments)
LK-99: The live online race for a room-temperature superconductor - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36940323 - July 31, 2023 (619 comments)
Ask HN: Room temperature superconductor: what to expect? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36930707 - July 30, 2023 (61 comments)
“We are not cheating” (YH Kwon superconductor comments) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36929386 - July 30, 2023 (61 comments)
Korea Superconductor Papers Published ‘Without Consent’ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36927216 - July 30, 2023 (47 comments)
Argonne National Lab is attempting to replicate LK-99 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36916254 - July 29, 2023 (201 comments)
LK-99 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36897300 - July 27, 2023 (58 comments)
Superconductor news: What’s claimed, and how strong the evidence seems to be - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36881808 - July 26, 2023 (471 comments)
The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36864624 - July 25, 2023 (875 comments)
Edit: thanks to mystery user for emailing [email protected] to suggest we include the days, not just month/year, for fast-moving stories like this.
With all the recent “the government has alien spacecraft news” and the bizarre circumstances of this material’s creation, the (I know to be ridiculous) conspiratorial part of my mind is going “I guess climate change is finally forcing them to take stuff out of the extraterrestrial vaults.”
Third replication on some Chinese website https://www.zhihu.com/zvideo/1669820225079070720
I haven’t been this excited since the EmDrive
Someone posted this in a comment on another post of LK-99: Wouldn't the first step be verification before replication? I.e. have the original authors send out some LK-99 samples to other researchers to at least confirm "Yes, this thing is a high temperature superconductor". Wouldn't matter even that much if it were made with unicorn dust: it would be proof that high temperature superconductors are even possible, which is itself a huge, huge deal.
After that replication of production of LK-99 would of course be critical, but just proving it exists should alone be enough for grand celebration.
After that replication of production of LK-99 would of course be critical, but just proving it exists should alone be enough for grand celebration.
How likely is this to lead to breaking all encryption by enabling way bigger superconducting quantum computers with way more qubits than are reasonable nowadays? Is this just going to turn into cyberwar on steroids?
I will never get tired of this story (and fresh Derek Lowe)
PBS had a documentary about the possibilities way back in the 1980s and I still remember it
It won't change things overnight or even this year but the benefits to humankind will be huge eventually.
(and we'll need more power transmission more cheaply for all that extra air-conditioning we'll need unfortunately)
PBS had a documentary about the possibilities way back in the 1980s and I still remember it
It won't change things overnight or even this year but the benefits to humankind will be huge eventually.
(and we'll need more power transmission more cheaply for all that extra air-conditioning we'll need unfortunately)
I wonder if this is just summertime boredom combined with social media blowing an interesting development out of proportion, or if we're actually witnessing history in real time?
Also, what are the chances this is like another graphene, where it can do everything except get out of the lab?
Also, what are the chances this is like another graphene, where it can do everything except get out of the lab?
If it's real, how fast could we see concrete applications using this material? 5-year time frame? 10-year time frame? More?
What’s the next big tech in the tech tree after room temp superconductors?
I posted this elsewhere but I think it was after comments got merged in here, so sorry for the spam if you happen to see it twice:
I’m interested to know if anyone has any recommended resources on DFT or DDFT (the simulation method used here) for someone with good applied math knowledge but who is not a physicist. I have a decent working knowledge of stat mech from knowing about dynamical systems and information theory, but I am not a physicist. I’ve come across (classical) DFT before, but the tutorial papers I’ve come across get weighed down by a lot of physics jargon and notation that I don’t understand and they describe it in terms of certain physical systems that obfuscate whether I can adapt the method to problems I am interested (I think the answer is yes in my case but if I was confident I wouldn’t be asking). I could just rederive (classical) D or DDFT for my stochastic process, and that is likely the best way to learn it, but having a resource that is written more from the perspective of dynamical systems than a physicist would speed the process up quite a bit!
I’m interested to know if anyone has any recommended resources on DFT or DDFT (the simulation method used here) for someone with good applied math knowledge but who is not a physicist. I have a decent working knowledge of stat mech from knowing about dynamical systems and information theory, but I am not a physicist. I’ve come across (classical) DFT before, but the tutorial papers I’ve come across get weighed down by a lot of physics jargon and notation that I don’t understand and they describe it in terms of certain physical systems that obfuscate whether I can adapt the method to problems I am interested (I think the answer is yes in my case but if I was confident I wouldn’t be asking). I could just rederive (classical) D or DDFT for my stochastic process, and that is likely the best way to learn it, but having a resource that is written more from the perspective of dynamical systems than a physicist would speed the process up quite a bit!
Apart from levitation and resistance, free conductivity, what are superconductors really good for? Like how could an iPhone become better with super conductive room temperature materials?
I'm not a scientist but how does this demonstrate anything? It just looks like a magnet is moving some metallic object. Can someone explain like I'm a five year old?
I am glad this is getting more attention. Maybe it will replicate, maybe it will not, or maybe we will find something new. But happy that this is in the news cycle.
"Guardedly optimistic"!
Even if this doesn't pan out, I'll dare to hope we get useful stuff out of this, like how we got Duct (duck?) tape and silly putty.
If it does, hoo boy!
If it does, hoo boy!
This would be huge for increasing energy density in Manhattan. Holbrook Superconductor Project uses liquid nitrogen to cool.
Are these guys just trolling?
They reference Dr Salvatore Cezar Pais in the patent. The spaceship guy. Surely they're trying to stir the pot with that.
https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2023027537A1/en
They reference Dr Salvatore Cezar Pais in the patent. The spaceship guy. Surely they're trying to stir the pot with that.
https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2023027537A1/en
- Lossless transport of energy - Batteries that don't take any time to recharge - Faster CPUs. Much faster with no heat to burn your lap.
Can I have my flying car now?