LK-99 Superconductor: Scientific discovery of the century or hoax of the decade?

While the film about the physicist and creator of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, is currently filling cinema halls around the world, another drama worthy of Hollywood is taking place in the world's laboratories. The scientific community has not been this excited in a long time - how could it not be when, as many believe, it is on the threshold of the Holy Grail of physics, an incredible discovery that will have an irreversible impact on humanity.

Its name is LK-99, a superconductor that can transmit electricity without heat loss at room temperature. It is a revolutionary material that can make computers, machines, trains and other devices much more efficient and powerful, as well as pave the way for technological marvels, such as vehicles that float above the ground.

The discovery was presented by Korean scientists on July 22, and since then, researchers around the world have been working frantically to confirm or disprove the assumptions that shook the scientific community. Despite numerous controversies and doubts, already two scientific teams, from China and the USA, claim to have succeeded in confirming the discovery.


What is the secret of superconductors: Dramatic reduction of energy consumption

When electrons pass through a material, they collide with atoms and lose some of their energy in the form of heat. This is why, for example, wires in devices heat up and we need coolers to cool computers. However, thanks to superconductors, electrons pass through without any resistance. This would mean that the same computer works without any energy losses.

If superconductors were to become a reality at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, they would revolutionize various aspects of technology. Superconducting materials could lead to ultra-efficient and powerful computing systems, dramatically reducing power consumption and heat generation. This would open up new possibilities for resolving complex computational problems in the fields of artificial intelligence, scientific simulations, weather forecasting and much more.

Electronic devices would be smaller and more powerful, they would last longer on a single charge, transportation would be faster and more energy efficient, MRI machines would have better image quality leading to better diagnostic possibilities, electric motors and generators would become more efficient, reducing energy losses. Superconducting materials would improve the efficiency and performance of fusion reactors, potentially leading to fusion energy as a sustainable and clean energy source for the future.

In short, the possibilities in various fields are unimaginable, which is why scientists have been publishing for years, but very quickly retracting papers on achieving superconductivity.

The last among those who claim to have found the Holy Grail are Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim from South Korea's Center for Quantum Energy Research, who named the material after the initials of their surnames and the year when, according to them, the discovery was made - 1999. Their work published on the arXiv server caused a lot of suspicion.

One of those who suspect is Michael Norman, a theorist at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, USA.

- They act like real amateurs. They don't know much about superconductivity and the way they presented some of the data seems suspicious - Norman told Science magazine.


Why is superconductivity so difficult to achieve?

And indeed, what the Korean scientists claim seems impossible. Normally, electrons cannot easily pass through crystallized solids because they are repelled by vibrating atoms in the crystal lattice. However, in some materials, at low enough temperatures, the electrons form loosely bound, overlapping pairs - which cannot be disrupted without breaking the pair. And at low temperatures, the vibrations are not strong enough to do this. So these electrons slide through the material without interference.

Dozens of metal elements - lead, mercury, niobium, tin - and their alloys become superconductors when cooled to almost absolute zero. This means that their use requires special equipment to keep them cool, which is very expensive and complicated. Because of this, scientists have been searching for a superconductor that can work at room temperature for years.

LK 99 can do just that, Korean scientists claim. In the preprints, which have not gone through the peer-review process, the researchers claim that when the material is filled with copper, this material, made out of common elements - lead, oxygen and phosphorus - becomes a superconductor at room temperature and temperatures at least as high as 400 K - more than the point boiling water. Basically, they claim that you can make a sample of this material, take it out of the oven and just keep it on a table in the lab and it will conduct electricity without any resistance. In addition, the material appears to repel a magnetic field, a key signature of superconductivity.


Several reasons for doubt

According to Norman, there are several reasons for skepticism. First, the undiluted material, lead apatite, is not a metal, but a non-conducting mineral. And that's not a promising starting point for creating superconductors. Furthermore, lead and copper atoms have similar electronic structures, so substituting copper atoms for some of the lead atoms should not significantly affect the electrical properties of the material.

- You have a stone, and in the end you should get a stone again - says Norman.

In addition, lead atoms are very heavy, which should reduce vibrations and make it harder for electrons to pair up, Norman explains.


What do the authors say?

The Korean researchers hypothesize that in their material the doping slightly distorts the long, naturally occurring chains of lead atoms. They say that superconductivity could occur along these 1D channels. But that would be surprising, Norman says, because 1D systems don't typically produce superconductivity. Furthermore, the disorder introduced by doping should further suppress superconductivity.

- You have one dimension, which is bad, and you have disorder, which is also bad - says Norman.

Nadia Mason, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Illinois, however, notes that Lee and Kim also suggest that a type of charge ripple could exist in the chains and that similar charge patterns have been seen in high-temperature superconductors.

"Maybe this material really hits the spot for a strongly interactive unconventional superconductor," she says.


No movie ending - Years can pass from commercial use

Confirmation or final refutation of the claim of the creation of superconductors at room temperature could arrive only in a few months, even years. If the discovery turns out to be correct, it will again be many years before production on a commercial scale is possible. However, that reality hasn't stopped investors from snapping up shares of South Korean and Chinese companies in hopes of making new fortunes soon.

Scientists warn that this story may not end cinematically, the way we all hope. However, they add, perhaps these findings, along with renewed enthusiasm for science, will lead to other advances that will enable fast and energy-efficient trains, sustainable and inexpensive quantum supercomputers, and highly scalable batteries for storing renewable energy.

M. Dedic

Argonne National Laboratory

Center for Quantum Energy Research

Sukbae Lee

Ji-Hoon Kim

Michael Norman

superconductor

LK 99

superconducting materials

superconductivity

energy efficiency

energy reduction

scientific discovery

breakthrough discovery