Superconductors are lossless conductive materials superior to traditional conductors. Most of the existing superconducting materials need to work at extremely low temperature, which greatly limits their large-scale application. Therefore, it is a long-term dream for physicists to find a room temperature superconducting material. Today, we have reached a milestone on the road of human exploration of superconductivity.
According to the cover article of the latest issue of Nature magazine, scientists from the UniversityofRochester in the United States have successfully manufactured room-temperature superconducting materials with a critical temperature of about 15℃ at 2.6 million atmospheres, which is the first time that human beings have realized room-temperature superconductivity.
In fact, it has been more than 100 years since superconductivity was first discovered. As early as 19 1 1 years ago, Dutch physicist HeikeKamerlinghOnnes had found that when the temperature dropped by 4.2K (about -268.95℃), the resistance of metallic mercury immersed in liquid ammonia would disappear. However, it was not until 1957 that the first theory, BCS theory, appeared, which could truly describe superconductivity. This theory was established by American scientists JohnBardeen, LeonCooper and JohnSchrieffer on the basis of "wave-particle duality". They believe that when there is a voltage, the free electrons in the outer layer of the metal will flow through the lattice to form a current, but usually, this lattice is defective and will hinder the current due to thermal vibration.
In superconductors, electrons will be bound to form "cooperative pairs" and produce collective condensed waves, which are different from free electrons and can pass through the lattice without obstacles.