Current Affairs

Issue

A team of physicists in New York has discovered a material that conducts electricity with perfect efficiency at room temperature.

 

Background

A superconductor is a substance that conducts electricity without resistance when it becomes colder than a "critical temperature”. At this temperature, electrons can move freely through the material.

 

Details

• The hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur compound operates as a superconductor at up to 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

• That’s more than 50 degrees hotter than the previous high-temperature superconductivity record set last year.

• Scientists however say that the material will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any of the revolutionary technologies.

• That’s because the substance superconducts at room temperature only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75% as extreme as those found in the Earth’s core.

• Materials scientists now face the challenge of discovering a superconductor that operates not only at normal temperatures but under everyday pressures, too.

• Certain features of the new compound raise hopes that the right blend of atoms could someday be found.

• Researchers discovered in 1911 that at low temperatures, electrons can induce vibrations in a metal’s atomic lattice, and those vibrations in turn draw electrons together into couples known as Cooper pairs.

• Researchers have spent decades searching for a superconductor whose Cooper pairs tango tightly enough to withstand the heat of everyday environments. 

• Hydrogen’s diminutive size lets electrons get closer to the nodes of the lattice, augmenting their interactions with the vibrations.

• Hydrogen’s lightness also allows those guiding ripples to vibrate faster, further strengthening the glue that binds the Cooper pairs.