Hope for revolutionary high-temperature superconductor lives on

1/3 images 1 of 3 images or videos Calculations by TU Wien (Vienna) show: Newly discovered material LK-99 indeed has properties that could be advantageous for superconductivity. LK-99 is the name of the material that is being hotly debated around the world these days: A Korean research group published results at the end of July 2023 suggesting that it could be a superconductor even at room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure. Superconductors known to date retain their properties only when either cooled to very low temperatures or subjected to extremely high pressure. If this assumption is confirmed, it would be a huge breakthrough: Such a high-temperature superconductor has repeatedly been referred to as the "Holy Grail" of materials science. Such a material would revolutionize the way we generate, transport and store electricity and use electric motors. However, there are still justified doubts. At TU Wien (Vienna), the material has now been analyzed with computer simulations and some interesting discoveries have been made: The calculated electron states are indeed quite favorable for superconductivity.