SoKor Team Creates Superconductor At Lab

A team of South Korean physicists claims to have created an elusive room-temperature/ambient-pressure superconducting material, Bob Yirka reported for Phys.org, but their work has not yet been peer-reviewed despite their having posted two papers on the arXiv preprint server.

Photo Insert: The team claims to have measured samples of LK-99 as electricity was applied and found its sensitivity fell to near zero.

By finding a material that would conduct electricity without resistance, they could revolutionize science and business as it means that electricity would not be lost to heat dissipation as it moves along power lines.

It would also mean billions of dollars in profits for manufacturers of appliances and electronic gadgets. In their two papers, the research team describes the new material, which they call LK-99, and how it was created.

It was made by a solid-state reaction between lanarkite (Pb2SO5) and copper phosphide (Cu3P). The reaction, they claim, transformed the mixture into a gray, superconductive material.

The team claims to have measured samples of LK-99 as electricity was applied and found its sensitivity fell to near zero.

They also claim that it exhibited the Meissner effect of superconductivity as it levitated when placed on a magnet. The team has provided a video of the material partially levitating.

They claim that the levitation was only partial because of impurities in their material. Once proven and replicated by other laboratories, team members could possibly even bag the Nobel Prize for physics.

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