credibility of LK99 claims is very very high. What are the medium term practical implications for all these potential applications?
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LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
281–290 of 361 posts
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#282This is my first comment on this material, because I've been skeptical, but this result shouldn't be understated. It basically confirms the existence of a new family of high-temperature superconductors, the first of its kind since the cuprates in 1986. And for context, in the initial paper on the cuprates the critical temperature was measured to be 36 K. By synthesising other members of the cuprate family and optimis…
> It basically confirms the existence of a new family of high-temperature superconductors, the first of its kind since the cuprates in 1986. Specifically, it seems, a family based on a novel superconductivity mechanism. If this a real effect, there's not only significant scope to improve LK-99 synthesis, but also scope to find new materials that could use the same mechanism that operate at even higher temperatures, a…
One of the DFT papers suggested gold or silver for doping agents and, I’m no expert in the field but I feel like there’s a ton of room to explore the doping process of this material.
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most materials are not superconductors at 110K. If this one is, it is possible Koreans did not fake room temperature results but rather their sample is slightly different for some reason, maybe pure luck, maybe some part of process that they didn't clearly define or that their precursor materials have certain impurities.
It is apparently extremely difficult to fabricate LK-99 and most of the time the process being used creates similar substances but without appropriate Cu substitution in its lattice. All of the videos have been of generally quite small samples and the manufacturing difficulty is the purported reason. The SK also supposedly had more details on this but with the leak of the paper those haven't been cleaned up and added…
I thought the original hype around LK-99 was that it was supposed to be easy to manufacture with materials most labs have on hand? E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36865106
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#284This doesn't look superconducting at all to me, simply the sample is very small and below 110K the resistance of the sample is too small to be measured by their measurement equipment. I'm happy to be proved wrong but there should be a steeper transition at the critical temperature.
Note that the graphic is in log escale.
Also, it looks like it's more complicated https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Superconducting-transiti...
Also, IIUC the method makes a lot of small grains with different composition, and they may become superconductors at different temperature, and make a dirtier curve.
Also, not my research area, so I'm guessing a bit.
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#285Looks like it still goes superconducting at a magnetic field of 9 Tesla. Does that seem like a really high critical field?
YBCO which has a critical temperature of around 90K has a critical field in excess of 250T. So 9T is not expected to weaken superconductivity much for a sample with a critical temperature of 110K.
Wow 250T is pretty high. Was that measured or extrapolated?
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is apparently extremely difficult to fabricate LK-99 and most of the time the process being used creates similar substances but without appropriate Cu substitution in its lattice. All of the videos have been of generally quite small samples and the manufacturing difficulty is the purported reason. The SK also supposedly had more details on this but with the leak of the paper those haven't been cleaned up and added…
I thought the original hype around LK-99 was that it was supposed to be easy to manufacture with materials most labs have on hand? E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36865106
- It was naive to think a simple recipe was going to play out with everyone getting what they wanted easily when they tried to follow it.
- It's still a huge deal if the manufacturing is as easy as it appears to be, even if most of the replication attempts aren't getting _quite_ the right thing. It's hilarious if room temperature superconductors were always "Put these two things in a lucifer furnace and roll a die" away.
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#287Can someone with field expertise explain the implications if this material were real / replicable / cheaply manufacturable? I see a lot of breathless excitement in these comments, as if free energy and perpetual motion machines are right around the corner, but from the few details I've delved into it's more like the electric grid might get 10% more efficient, MRIs might get a little cheaper, etc. What are the excitin…
Avatar 3 merchandise will definitely include floating rocks of Unobtanium.
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is apparently extremely difficult to fabricate LK-99 and most of the time the process being used creates similar substances but without appropriate Cu substitution in its lattice. All of the videos have been of generally quite small samples and the manufacturing difficulty is the purported reason. The SK also supposedly had more details on this but with the leak of the paper those haven't been cleaned up and added…
I thought the original hype around LK-99 was that it was supposed to be easy to manufacture with materials most labs have on hand? E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36865106
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Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#289Can someone with field expertise explain the implications if this material were real / replicable / cheaply manufacturable? I see a lot of breathless excitement in these comments, as if free energy and perpetual motion machines are right around the corner, but from the few details I've delved into it's more like the electric grid might get 10% more efficient, MRIs might get a little cheaper, etc. What are the excitin…
Transmission loss is a real and important reason why you can't, say, cover the Sahara with solar panels to get unlimited free energy for mainland Europe and Africa (barring all the logistical challenges of actually pulling something like that off). This is because you lose a significant amount of energy just by moving it from one place to another. With RTP superconductors, you get near perfect transmission from the s…
From what I've read, grid transmission losses are something like 5-10% - e.g. this page (https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=105&t=3) cites 5% in the US. Fine and nice, but seems incremental, not earth shattering, and I wonder about the logistics / ROI of manufacturing thousands of miles of LK-99 cables to achieve that. But maybe I'm missing something.
Re: LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
#290To me this is encouraging. 110K is really high! It's higher than YBCO which is what they make commercial "high temperature" superconducting tape out of. IMO if this is legit (I have no way of judging the source) then this is the first good third party evidence that the original researchers are not just doing some kind of fraud. A total fraud wouldn't have actually discovered a novel high-temperature, but not room tem…
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