First Room-Temperature Carbonaceous Superconductor:

$First Room-Temperature Superconductor$

A novel metallic compound of hydrogen, carbon and sulfur exhibited superconductivity at a balmy 59 degrees Fahrenheit when pressurized between a pair of diamond anvils.

After hundreds of years of research, scientists have reported the discovery of first-room temperature superconductor on October-14, 2020. This groundbreaking discovery was made by two keys among the team, Dr. Ranga Diaz & Dr. Ashkan Salamat , researcher at University of Rochester, NY 14627. The compound conducts electricity without resistance as nearly as 15°C (superconductors typically requires temperatures below -140

°C/-220

°F)

 ,but under high pressure (about 2.6 million atm) only.

          Fig: Manufacturing Lab of first RT superconductivity, University of Rochester 

SUPERCONDUCTOR:

Superconductors are materials where electrons can move without any resistance i.e. they conduct electricity with no resistance. They can carry a current indefinitely without losing any energy. But they don't work unless they are cooled below room temperature, according to old philosophy regarding superconductivity. They stop showing any electrical resistance and they expel their magnetic fields, which makes them ideal for conducting electricity. Superconductors are used to make extremely powerful electromagnets to accelerate charged particles very fast (to near the speed of light). SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices) are used to detect even the weakest magnetic field.

HISTORY OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY WITH TRANSITION TEMPERATURE:

•   In 1911 superconductivity was first observed in mercury (when cooled at 4 degrees Kelvin (-452°F, -269°C))by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes of Leiden University.

•  In subsequent decades after 1933 when "Meissner effect" was propounded, other superconducting metals, alloys and compounds were discovered. 

• In 1941, niobium-nitride was found to super-conduct at 16 K.

• In 1953, vanadium-silicon displayed superconductive properties at 17.5 K.

• The mathematically-complex BCS theory(advanced in 1957) explained superconductivity at temperatures close to absolute zero for elements and simple alloys. However, at higher temperatures other than absolute temperature and with different superconductor systems, the BCS theory has subsequently become inadequate to fully explain how superconductivity is occurring.

• With the pursuance of suggestion of  Bill Little of Stanford University(1964) on organic superconductor, in 1980s,  (TMTSF)₂PF₆ was synthesized at cold 1.2K transition temperature & on subjection  in high pressure.

• However, in 1986, a brittle ceramic(insulator) compound; superconducting copper-oxides (cuprate) was discovered which superconducted at the highest temperature then known: 30 K.

•  In January of 1987, a research team at the University of Alabama-Huntsville substituted yttrium for lanthanum in cuprate molecule and achieved an incredible 92 K Tc.

• For more than 20 years, the mercury copper-oxides held the record for highest transition temperature at 138 K. However, recently the thallium copper-oxides have moved into the lead. When the compound is structured to 3212, thallium, barium, copper, tellurium and oxygen; it produced temperature near 147K with a purity nearly balancing  to that of mercuric cuprate.

• The company today known as, ISCO International, introduced high temperature superconductors that was able to operate at nearly 77K.

               Fig: Timeline of Superconductivity with their elemental constituents

• All-metal perovskite superconductor were then found in 2001 following research on an alloy of indium and gold behaving superconductor nearly at absolute zero in 2000.

• Also in 2001, Japanese Researchers found Magnesium Diboride(MgB₂ )to behave superconducting at 39K, new highest Tc of binary alloys. Laboratories were testing that MgB₂ the superiority over performance between NbTi and Nb₃Sn wires in high magnetic field applications, MRI, where they found affirmative result.

• Iron-based superconductors(family of pnictides) with formula lanthanum oxygen fluorine iron arsenide (LaO_1−xF_xFeAs) when replaced Ln by Samarium by  had Tc over 50K observed by a group of Japanese researchers in 2008.

•  Phonon-mediated superconductivity possessing Metal(binary) Polyhydrides had Tc near to room-temperature.

• Later on, in 2014/15 , Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) at extremely high pressures (around 150 gigapascals) was first confirmed to have a transition temperature of 80 K, which later replaced by Lanthanium Hydride (LaH10), with a Tc of 250K(under pressure of 170 GPa)- most recorded favourable temperature.       The previous late year's highest temperature had been 260 K, or 8 °F, achieved by a rival group at George Washington University and the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC, in 2018. (Another group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, achieved 250 K, or -9.7 °F, at around this same time.) 

Fig: Magnetic Levitation Of RT Superconductor

Manufacturing of Carbonaceous Sulfur Hydride:

With the repetition of a concept of a team in Germany showing in 2015 that a metallic form of hydrogen sulfide can super-conduct subjecting under high pressure, the team gave rise to the winning recipe. The researchers started with hydrogen sulfide, added methane (a compound of carbon and hydrogen), and baked the concoction with a laser.

    During the course, the fine details of H-C-S* (carbonaceous sulfur hydride)  potion of recipe had avoided them, eventually. They researched that Hydrogen is too small to show up in past concept of lattice structure, so interestingly the groups are unknown about how the atoms are arranged, or even the substance’s exact chemical formula*. This undiscovered formula could be one of the landmark for the todays researchers to restructure the orientation & its behavioral change of compound for upliftment of room temperature superconductivity era.

                        Fig: Manufacturing Process of H-C-S*

Significance of room-temperature superconductor:

If a room-temperature superconductor could be used at atmospheric pressure, it could save vast amounts of energy lost to resistance in the electrical grid. And, it could improve current technologies, from MRI machines to quantum computers to magnetically levitated trains. But so far scientists have created only tiny specs of the material at high pressure, so practical applications are still a long way off.

  "The World's First Room Temperature Superconductor"