What’s an Ambient Superconductor and Why the Buzz About LK

Superconductivity is having a moment. The concept of developing techniques for transporting electricity with no resistance is tantalizing because it has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry, reducing waste, lowering bills and helping to curb global warming. But superconductivity has so far only been achieved at extreme temperatures — like -269C (-452F) — or pressure, limiting its use to a handful of expensive applications like hospital MRI scanners. That’s why claims this year about a breakthrough in finding the first room-temperature superconductor technology grabbed the world’s attention and sparked surges in certain Korean and Chinese stocks. Some scientists expressed serious doubts about the LK-99 superconductor but, because of its potential to transform life as we know it, the concept has become an obsession with everyone from respected researchers to Twitch streamers and TikTok celebrities.

1. What is a superconductor?

The temperamental properties of electricity have mesmerized the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Nicola Tesla. Under normal circumstances, electricity is difficult to send from one place to another because electrons bump into each other, creating heat and reducing power. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with almost zero resistance — under certain conditions. Currently they are known to exhibit such properties only under extreme cooling or extreme pressure. In 1911, Mercury became the first material discovered to have this property. Since then, metallic alloys, ceramics and other materials have been found to conduct electricity with almost zero resistance, but only when supercooled.

2. What is a room-temperature superconductor and why is it significant?

A room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor can conduct electricity without resistance and without either having to be cooled to almost absolute zero or requiring immense pressure. Creating and scaling this material could revolutionize the transportation of electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Renewable solar or wind energy could be sent across great distances without significant loss, for example. They could dramatically boost the viability of anything that uses electromagnetism and could accelerate the development of a commercially viable fusion reactor. It has been referred to as “one of the most sought after goals in all of materials science and condensed matter physics” by the journal Science.

3. What are superconductors currently used for?

They’re used to make powerful and more efficient electromagnets, which can be used to make coils in some magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, allowing doctors to examine soft tissue. Superconducting magnets are used in Japan to lift trains above rails through magnetic levitation, eliminating friction. These superconducting magnets are also key to particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, as well as nuclear fusion research. Quantum computers — such as ones being built by Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google — rely on superconductors too.

4. What makes superconductivity so difficult?

Much research into superconductors centered on theories for what happens inside materials when they are radically cooled. Recently, scientists have used computational modeling to identify possible arrangements of atoms and chemical properties of materials that could create superconductors that work in different conditions. But there remains an immense number of possible combinations that would require testing.

5. What’s the new claim?

Two papers by materials scientists at the Quantum Energy Research Centre and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, both in Seoul, claimed to have synthesized a room-temperature superconducting material “for the first time in the world.” The compound, which they’ve called LK-99, is formed of lead, phosphorous and oxygen. The researchers claim to have proven LK-99’s superconductivity by demonstrating how the material responds when electricity is pushed through it, or when it is exposed to magnetic fields, all without cooling the material or putting it under pressure. The papers were shared pre-publication — meaning the work hadn’t been reviewed by expert peers. However, the papers spurred researchers and labs globally to attempt to replicate the results. At least one person live-streamed his efforts on Twitch.

6. What do other scientists say?

News of the research was met by mixture of excitement and skepticism. Two independent research teams, one in India and the other in China, claimed to have recreated LK-99 and confirmed the structure aligned with the original paper, but neither found evidence of superconductivity. A levitating sample of LK-99 has been reported at another lab in China, but that doesn’t necessarily prove superconductivity either. Research into the properties of LK-99 by Sinead Griffin at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that superconductivity was one explanation for the results, but that “a wealth of other phenomena like metal insulator transitions, charge density waves” and others could explain the results. The material seems to at least be unusual, and researchers are continuing to dig into its properties.

7. Is this the first claim of this kind?

No, the last claim of producing a room-temperature superconductor came in the journal Nature in March 2023. That paper has been met with some skepticism because its author published a 2020 paper in the same journal claiming the same breakthrough, which Nature retracted in 2022. Claims of room temperature super conductivity have been made about other materials, but these claims have either required enormous pressure or haven’t been corroborated by other researchers.

--With assistance from Eamon Akil Farhat and Sarah Frier.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com