Room-Temperature Superconductors.
Mar. 18th, 2008 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupSo, it seems that there has just been an announcement in the Journal Science about a new Room-Temperature Superconductor. Alas that link is of limited use to anyone (like me) who doesn't subscribe to Science, so my information is sketchy. It seems that the secret is to take Silane (a silicon-hydrogen compound) and pressurize it to 120 or so Gigapascals. The resulting metal superconducts at room temperature. This does tend to support the theory that pure hydrogen would be a superconductor if you could just pressurize it enough.
As you can imagine, compressing a compound to 120GPa and keeping it that way is no mean feat, although it could theoretically be done by some sort of unpowered rigid container. So, right now we have the choice of a compound that works at -87C at standard pressure, or something that works at room temperature but 120GPa.
We could really use a compromise that works at STP, but this constitutes a major step in that direction, and a major new class of superconductors. I expect to see a number of reductions of the needed pressure for a room-temperature superconductor in short order.
As you can imagine, compressing a compound to 120GPa and keeping it that way is no mean feat, although it could theoretically be done by some sort of unpowered rigid container. So, right now we have the choice of a compound that works at -87C at standard pressure, or something that works at room temperature but 120GPa.
We could really use a compromise that works at STP, but this constitutes a major step in that direction, and a major new class of superconductors. I expect to see a number of reductions of the needed pressure for a room-temperature superconductor in short order.
