Room Temperature Superconductor Redux (2024)

First, there was great excitement about a substance called LK-99. Turns out that the science was not repeatable and was called “suspect”. That story is not over because two teams from China are claiming (Jan 2024) to have done rigorous science and are backing up LK-99 as a RTSC. (One of the problems was it was graph extrapolation on iffy data).

Next, is the wonder material graphene. Scientists have found that a “magic angle” between two layers of graphene can produce superconductivity… but at at extremely cold temperatures (at a point called the “Currie Critical Temperature, Tc, all resistance to electron flow stops, electrons form pairs and bounce through any SC lattice with no heat loss).

All of that is neato but the “Holy Grail” is to find a material that does that at regular atmospheric pressures and room temperature (usually measured on the Kelvin scale. RT ~ 300 K).

No substance yet has been shown to work at ambient conditions (excluding Dr. Pias’ UFO/Navy claims!).

Here is the latest contender…

The latest “hat in the ring” for this quest is actually a pretty common material in a pretty peculiar configuration: graphite, the substance that makes up the writing part of pencils. Not all graphite is created equal – single layers of it, called graphene, are already been hailed as a miracle material with interesting properties. This work doesn't focus on that, but rather on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG).

Source: IFLScience.com, Jan 25, 2024 - New Room Temperature Superconductor Throws Hat In The Ring – This Time, It’s Graphite.

There is a bunch of “man-splaining” that happens but here are some of the important things. An allotrope is a variation of a chemical form, like coal vs graphene. In that respect, HPOG is another graphite allotrope but it is specifically structured. It is the island “defects” that allow “quantum tunneling” to happen in the material. This interaction was measured for electrical resistance and magnetic properties just like LK-99; and like LK-99, the graphs were extrapolated to the ideal area which points to RTSC.

Maybe the most important part is that this is a quantum behavior ala SC itself. That sure beats throwing a bunch of chemicals in a beaker and then making outrageous claims (ahem, the “gold and silver claim a few years ago).

This has some scientific merit to it!!

My guess is, isolate those forms, put them in a Buckyball to keep them from interacting, then string them together to make miles of RTSC power transmission lines!

Science paper: Global Room-Temperature Superconductivity in Graphite.

Vid at IFLScience link on why RTSC are meaningful and some scientific explanations (problem embedding).

Here’s to hoping for a better future!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
First, there was great excitement about a substance called LK-99. Turns out that the science was not repeatable and was called “suspect”. That story is not over because two teams from China are claiming (Jan 2024) to have done rigorous science and are backing up LK-99 as a RTSC. (One of the problems was it was graph extrapolation on iffy data).

Next, is the wonder material graphene. Scientists have found that a “magic angle” between two layers of graphene can produce superconductivity… but at at extremely cold temperatures (at a point called the “Currie Critical Temperature, Tc, all resistance to electron flow stops, electrons form pairs and bounce through any SC lattice with no heat loss).

All of that is neato but the “Holy Grail” is to find a material that does that at regular atmospheric pressures and room temperature (usually measured on the Kelvin scale. RT ~ 300 K).

No substance yet has been shown to work at ambient conditions (excluding Dr. Pias’ UFO/Navy claims!).

Here is the latest contender…

The latest “hat in the ring” for this quest is actually a pretty common material in a pretty peculiar configuration: graphite, the substance that makes up the writing part of pencils. Not all graphite is created equal – single layers of it, called graphene, are already been hailed as a miracle material with interesting properties. This work doesn't focus on that, but rather on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG).

Source: IFLScience.com, Jan 25, 2024 - New Room Temperature Superconductor Throws Hat In The Ring – This Time, It’s Graphite.

There is a bunch of “man-splaining” that happens but here are some of the important things. An allotrope is a variation of a chemical form, like coal vs graphene. In that respect, HPOG is another graphite allotrope but it is specifically structured. It is the island “defects” that allow “quantum tunneling” to happen in the material. This interaction was measured for electrical resistance and magnetic properties just like LK-99; and like LK-99, the graphs were extrapolated to the ideal area which points to RTSC.

Maybe the most important part is that this is a quantum behavior ala SC itself. That sure beats throwing a bunch of chemicals in a beaker and then making outrageous claims (ahem, the “gold and silver claim a few years ago).

This has some scientific merit to it!!

My guess is, isolate those forms, put them in a Buckyball to keep them from interacting, then string them together to make miles of RTSC power transmission lines!

Science paper: Global Room-Temperature Superconductivity in Graphite.

Vid at IFLScience link on why RTSC are meaningful and some scientific explanations (problem embedding).

Here’s to hoping for a better future!

If it can be weaponized, it will be.

a reply to: AtomicBulldog ETA: this reply should have been to TEOTW... (haven't had a coffee yet)


Thank you for keeping tabs on this subject matter because I lost interest due to 'suspect' 'non-repeatable' 'misinterpreted' 'iffy data' etc.

Some small LK-99 samples were reported to show strong diamagnetic properties, including a response confusingly[25] referred to as "partial levitation" over a magnet.[20] This was misinterpreted by some as a sign of superconductivity, although it is a sign of regular diamagnetism or ferromagnetism.

While initial preprints claimed the material was a room-temperature superconductor,[20]: 1  they did not report observing any definitive features of superconductivity, such as zero resistance, the Meissner effect, flux pinning, AC magnetic susceptibility, the Josephson effect, a temperature-dependent critical field and current, or a sudden jump in specific heat around the critical temperature.[26]

As it is common for a new material to spuriously seem like a potential candidate for high-temperature superconductivity,[13] thorough experimental reports normally demonstrate a number of these expected properties. As of 15 October 2023, not one of these properties had been observed by the original experiment or any replications.[

en.wikipedia.org...

In the source below it sure appears they believe a theory has emerged, which may be, to me, another descriptive 'suspect' term (see blue text below):

A theory of global superconductivity emerging in the array of linear structural defects is developed which well describes the experimental findings and demonstrate that global superconductivity arises as a global phase coherence of superconducting granules in linear defects promoted by the stabilizing effect of underlying Bernal graphite via tunneling coupling to the three dimensional (3D) material.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

Check this out!!

[Scientists] trapped the krypton [gas] in buckyballs—short for buckminsterfullerene, a soccer ball-shaped molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms. The buckyballs acted as a cage for each krypton atom. The researchers could then release the krypton from the buckyballs by heating it to 2,192 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 Celsius) or irradiating it with an electron beam. Both methods cause the buckyballs to fuse, leaving the krypton atoms in a neat line in a carbon nanotube. Once in that line, definition between each atom disappeared: they were a uniform, one-dimensional gas.

Gizmodo.com, Jan 28, 2024 - Chemists Used Buckyballs to Squeeze a Noble Gas Into One Dimension.

Before anyone starts, the “1-D” is the direction that electrons can move in the material.

Essentially, they lines up the atoms of a gas within yet another carbon allotrope!

Because electrons can only enter on one end, travel in one direction to exit, it is essentially a proof of concept for my speculation of n the OP!!

Gawl bless the metaverse for confirming what only makes sense if you think about it!!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
... make miles of RTSC power transmission lines!

That's the story I'm looking for, that someone made miles of room temperature superconductor power lines. Then I won't be so super skeptical of every seemingly dubious announcement.

I just happened to run across this video by a physicist, about the accomplishments of physics over the last 70 years. In it she warns the viewer not to fall for these RTSC claims that haven't built a working demonstrator.

a physicist responds: physics has done very little for like 70 years

Time 15:48

... you might see in the news people talking about like room temperature superconductors.
Oh my gosh, it's like every 3 years, and like, I mean, that's not going to pass the smell test.
Like don't fall for that every time guys

a reply to: Arbitrageur

I am ever the wishful thinker (we will be able to solve our own made problems by using our own ingenuity).

It is like graphene… I stopped following every little development and realized that it was not worth much until I held the product in my grubby little hands!

This RTSC news is more of my nuclear fusion dream more than anything else (even better HTSC would be welcome as that research seems to also plateaud out. I think that a combo with wave guides would be worth investigation so that you can add a twist to the plasma and keep the whole thing bundled together). Because a reactor is three dimensional in size, an increase in magnetic pressure by stronger magnets reduces the size dramatically. That is why I follow these claims of HT/RTSC announcements TBH).

Thanks for the vid as I sure others may think that we already have this tech figured out and a reality check keeps me honest!