Room-temperature Superconductors

Room-temperature Superconductors

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Physics

Concept :

• A study has reported the discovery of room-temperature superconductivity in nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride at about a thousand atmospheres of pressure.

Room-temperature superconductors

• Recently, scientists at the University of Rochester in the US have reported the discovery of room-temperature superconductivity in nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride at about a thousand atmospheres of pressure.
• According to the researchers, the presence of nitrogen led to the findings.
• The nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride exhibited superconductivity upon the jiggling motion of the crystal, and the scientists have inferred that the right amount of nitrogen could induce the right amount of jiggling that can induce superconductivity at room temperature but without destabilising the crystal.
• However, the discovery has become controversial as there are scientific criticisms of the methods employed by the researchers to process the data and other subtraction methods.

Superconductors:

• Superconductors are those materials that do not resist the flow of current and hence conduct electricity without any energy losses.
• No heat, sound or any other form of energy would be released from the material when it has reached critical temperature (Tc), or the temperature at which the material becomes superconductive.
• The critical temperature for superconductors is the temperature at which the electrical resistivity of metal drops to zero.
• Scientists have found out that superconductors can exhibit truly quantum phenomena and can enable revolutionary technologies, such as quantum computing.
• Some of the popular examples of superconductors are Aluminium, Magnesium diboride, Niobium, Copper oxide, Yttrium barium and Iron pnictides.
• As per the studies, all the materials which are known to be superconductors gain such properties in special circumstances and outside those circumstances, they resist the flow of current.
• Example: Aluminium becomes superconducting when it is cooled below its critical temperature i.e. less than –250°C.
• Researchers across the world have been working towards finding materials that exhibit superconductive properties in ambient conditions such as a few atmospheres of pressure and at room temperature.
• Studies have indicated that hydrogen and materials based on it could hold great promise in this regard.
• Example: In 2019, scientists in Germany found lanthanum hydride (LaH10) to be a superconductor at –20° C but under more than a million atmospheres of pressure which is almost equal to the pressures at the centre of the earth.