Researchers have not only raised the temperature, but also lowered the pressure required to achieve superconductivity. In a historic achievement, University of Rochester researchers have created a superconducting material at both a temperature and pressure low enough for practical applications.
Superconductivity is an incredible property of certain materials with exciting consequences. Once reached, for example, said materials can conduct electricity without resistance, so no loss of energy. But most materials are superconductive at extremely low temperatures. The quest for a room-temperature superconductor is ongoing, and is not without a bit of scientific drama.
A few years ago, there was a claim of a room-temperature superconductor that became supercritical at a temperature of 15°C (59°F), but required a pressure of 2.5 million atmospheres. That’s on the order of the pressure you might find in the core of a rocky planet, and can be achieved by squeezing materials between two diamonds. Other scientists raised issues with the way the numbers were handled, including an accusation of the data used being fabricated.
The paper was retracted by the journal Nature last September, and the team claims they are ready to resubmit that work. They have also announced a brand-new material with even more extraordinary properties (if confirmed). The new substance is described as a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride that becomes superconductive up to 20.5°C (69°F) and at a much lower pressure, roughly 10,000 atmospheres. Quite the improvement.
Researchers have long attempted to produce a superconductor that works at room temperature and at a relatively low pressure. A team now claims that its material, dubbed “red matter”, has these properties.
By Leah Crane
Scientists have discovered a new material that could be set to change the entire world. Researchers say they have created a superconducting material that works at both a temperature and a pressure low enough to actually use it in practical situations. It reaches a breakthrough that scientists have been chasing for more than a century, in making a material that is able to transmit electricity without resistance, and pass magnetic fields around the material.
A nearby star system is helping astronomers unravel the mystery of how water appeared in our solar system billions of years ago.
Scientists observed a young star, called V883 Orionis, located 1,300 light-years away using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes, or ALMA, in northern Chile.
The star is surrounded by a planet-forming disk of cloud of gas and dust leftover from when the star was born. Eventually, material in the disk comes together to form comets, asteroids and planets over millions of years.
Some algae glow blue when they experience forces. Held in transparent plastic, they now make devices light up in response to gentle pushes and tugs.
Researchers at Kyushu University, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Osaka University in Japan have recently introduced a new strategy for synthesizing multi-layer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a material that could be used to integrate different 2D materials in electronic devices, while preserving their unique properties. Their proposed approach, outlined in a paper published in Nature Electronics, could facilitate the fabrication of new highly performing graphene-based devices.
“The atomically flat 2D insulator hBN is a key material for the integration of 2D materials into electronic devices,” Hiroki Ago, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. “For example, the highest carrier mobility in monolayer graphene is achieved only when it is sandwiched by multilayer hBN. Superconductivity observed in twisted bilayer graphene also needs multilayer hBN to isolate from environment.”
In addition to its value for fabricating graphene-based devices, hBN can also be used to integrate transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in devices, achieving strong photoluminescence and high carrier mobility. It can also be valuable for conducting studies focusing on moiré physics.
MANUFACTURA’s eggshell project transforms organic waste into a sustainable building material made from 3D printed eggshells.
Researchers from Southwest University in China have constructed the entire chromosomal-scale genome assembly and complete spidroin gene set of the golden orb-weaving spider, Trichonephila clavata, known for its especially strong, golden-colored webs.
They attest that their work “Provides multidimensional data that significantly expand the knowledge of spider dragline silk generation…” and the researchers plan on using this new “molecular atlas” to better understand how spiders manufacture their silk.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, the paper details the steps the researchers took, from wild spider capture to multiomic analysis, in revealing the interplay of genes within the spider’s major ampullate gland, the gland responsible for producing dragline silk.
