A team of South Korean researchers claimed that they have successfully synthesized what could be the world’s first ambient-temperature superconductor, or a superconductor that can operate at room temperature and does not need to be cooled.
However, a team of Indian researchers quickly disproved the South Koreans’ claims, stating that the material the team developed, LK-99, was not superconductive.
A breakthrough that will change how we see the world
On July 22, researchers from Korea University in Seoul made a groundbreaking announcement about the discovery of a “room-temperature superconductor,” which they named LK-99. They released a pair of preliminary papers, which have not yet undergone peer review. If their findings are accurate, it could mark one of the most significant physics discoveries in recent decades.
To put it in a very reductive manner, in metal-based circuits, resistance decreases gradually with decreasing temperature. A superconductor, on the other hand, demonstrates a unique property. It has a critical temperature, also known as the transition temperature, below which its resistance suddenly drops to zero. This abrupt loss of resistance allows electric current to flow through the superconductor without any hindrance, resulting in superconductivity. This characteristic makes superconductors highly valuable for various applications in science and technology.
Considering its implications in supercomputing, A.I., ML, E.V.s, and clean energy–practically all significant fields that the tech industry is heavily invested in–this massive achievement would put South Korea on top of the technological food chain for years to come.
The most reputable efforts have shown that the material referred to as LK-99 by Korean researchers does not exhibit superconductive properties at room temperatures.
Not repeatable
Since the publication of the papers, numerous laboratories worldwide have been trying to reproduce the findings. However, the most credible attempts have failed to demonstrate superconductivity in LK-99.
On July 31, researchers from the National Physical Laboratory of India shared their paper on arXiv, concluding that LK-99 does not exhibit superconductive properties. V.P.S. (Veerpal Singh) Awana, the chief scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, has been openly sharing the details of his team’s replication attempts on Facebook. He has posted images of the materials they produced and provided updates on his communication with Sukbae Lee, one of the Korean researchers of the team that put out the paper.
Awana expressed how his team worked tirelessly, even during the weekend, to swiftly recreate the results obtained by the Korean team: “This weekend was quite hectic for us… My team was bustling.”
The majority of experts hold doubts regarding the Korean researchers’ findings. Scientists globally are attempting to reproduce and validate the results.
More researchers failed to recreate LK-99.
On July 31, researchers from Beihang University in Beijing also released a paper on arXiv, which confirmed that LK-99 does not exhibit superconductivity.
On August 1, researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China posted a video showcasing the magnetic levitation of an LK-99 sample. This video is noteworthy because the sample appears to levitate at multiple angles, indicating that it possesses a perfect diamagnetic property—a rarer characteristic associated with superconductors—rather than just simple diamagnetism.
However, diamagnetism that diamagnetism is a common property found in many materials, including copper, as per Simon Clarke, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford. He highlights that this phenomenon is observed in various substances, and some experiments have been conducted using highly high magnetic fields to achieve levitation of objects like strawberries or frogs. So, while diamagnetism is exciting and can cause levitation, it is not exclusive to superconductors like LK-99.
Since then, several other organizations have claimed that their experiments have shown that LK-99 is not superconductive at ambient temperatures, as the researchers claim.
The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics has established a verification committee to assess the validity of the LK-99 discovery. According to a report by Yonhap News Agency on August 3, the Society has concluded that LK-99 is not a superconductor because it lacks the Meissner effect—a defining characteristic of superconducting materials that causes them to expel all external magnetic fields, leading to levitation in the presence of a magnetic field.
Several research institutions are actively attempting to replicate the findings, including Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S., the Center for Quantum Materials and Superconductivity at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, the Laboratory of Superconducting Materials and Applications at Korea University, and the Center for Novel States of Complex Materials Research at Seoul National University.
The theory will only take you so far.
Theoretical researchers have also conducted calculations to explore the potential properties of the compound claimed to have been synthesized by Korean researchers.
While theoretical calculations can only suggest possibilities and cannot confirm superconductivity, analyses from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Northwest University in Washington, Vienna University of Technology, King’s College London, and many other research groups have all indicated that LK-99 could theoretically exhibit superconductivity at room temperatures.
However, as Christopher Nolan showcased in Oppenheimer what the scientists at Project Manhattan had gone through, the theory will only take you so far.
Experts like Awana have not given up hope,e though. He still believes that LK-99 is the best chance we have yet to synthesize a superconductor at this scale. Awana expressed his optimism about the potential for LK-99 to be a superconductor, but he also emphasized the need for patience. “My gut feeling is this: I am hopeful this compound will be a superconductor. In a week or so, we will be able to say for sure,” he said.
