Room-temperature superconductor

A room-temperature superconductor is a material yet to be discovered which would be capable of exhibiting superconducting properties at temperatures above 0° C (273.15 K). This is of course not strictly speaking "room temperature" (approx. 20–25°C); however, it can be reached very cheaply.

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors, several materials have been claimed to be room-temperature superconductors. In every case, independent investigation has quickly proven these claims false. As a result, most condensed matter physicists now treat with extreme skepticism any further claims of this nature^{[citation needed]}.

In 2008 a Canadian-German team reported the discovery of superconductivity when silane (SiH₄) was compressed to a solid at high pressure.^[1][2]

Silane was unfortunately not a room-temperature superconductor; an EE Times article grossly exaggerated this achievement and claimed that room-temperature superconductivity had been achieved. In reality, the transition temperature was 17 K at 96 and 120 GPa.

In 2003 a group of researchers published a results on high temperature superconductivity in PdH system^[3][4]. In 2007 the same group published a superconducting transition temperature of 260K.^[5] Superconductivity of PdH is related to the density of hydrogen inside the palladium lattice. The superconducting critical temperature increases as hydrogen density increases.

External links

• http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0606187 - a book
• http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/0704.2188 - a chapter

References