Scientists discover superconducting material that could lead to revolution

[...]The material has been nicknamed “reddmatter”, after its colour and as a nod to a material from Star Trek. It found that name during the process of creating it, when scientists found that it surprisingly switched to become a “very bright red” while it was being created.

Professor Dias and the team made the material by taking a rare earth metal named lutetium and mixed it with hydrogen and a small part of nitrogen. They were then left to react for two or three days, at high temperatures.

The compound came out a as a rich blue, according to the paper. But it was then pressed at very high pressure, when it turned from blue to pink as it reached superconductivity, and then again became a rich red at its non-superconducting metallic state.[...]

Scientists discover superconducting material that could bring total revolution in energy and electronics

Some good news after all!

Reddmatter has a ring to it tho, doesn't it?
Gimme all your red pennies, I'll take a superconducting revolution yesterday. Thanks!

a reply to: Insurrectile

It kind of has a creepy ring to the name.

a reply to: Tundra

You can hear hammer and sickle shake capital to it's core when you sit very silent.



L(ut)enium for Reddmatter. Take that, Stalin?

a reply to: Insurrectile

Only problem is lutetium is one of the rarest of the rare earths.
Therefore, not sure if could have widespread use.

a reply to: M5xaz

It is one of the rarest and most expensive of the rare earth metals with the price about US$10,000 per kilogram, or about one-fourth that of gold

en.wikipedia.org...

Any traders on board hovering over prices already?

originally posted by: Insurrectile
a reply to: M5xaz

It is one of the rarest and most expensive of the rare earth metals with the price about US$10,000 per kilogram, or about one-fourth that of gold

en.wikipedia.org...

Any traders on board hovering over prices already?

$10,000 per kilogram, currently

Price per kilogram would explode higher if you tried even a small mass market use, quite aside from the fact that annual production is....10 tons.


Nope.
Unworkable solution, even it does work.
Shame.....

it needs to be a room temp super conducter to have any significance.

originally posted by: sarahvital
it needs to be a room temp super conducter to have any significance.

At what pressure does it superconduct? That may be a bigger problem.

a reply to: pteridine

The answer to both was in the article.
20.5°C for temperature and 145,000 PSI for pressure.

a reply to: M5xaz

The total global demand for rare earth oxides (REOs) is expected to increase from 208,250 metric tons in 2019 to a forecasted 304,678 metric tons by 2025. REOs are used for a variety of applications, including in permanent magnets, in batteries, in catalysts, and more.

Rare earth oxide demand worldwide from 2017 to 2025

We're producing a lot of trash as well, and we don't even know how much material our applications will need. All that gold in electronics isn't much of a problem, either. Is it?

I don't know about solutions, but the increased efficiency of potential room temp superconductors is nothing short of a quantum leap.

a reply to: Insurrectile

The chemical composition does not work.

Adding hydrogen to any metal would only get you so far. Metallic hydrogen is the only way to get it done which is why they use pressure. The family of materials are located around each other on the periodic table.

This recipe does not make sense.

Besides, the way SC seems to work is to have a crystaline structure that predisposes itself to preforming (form before the event, not “acting”) the conditions such that reaching the critical temperature the structure aligns. That has been assisted with lasers. So it seems that frequency is involved with the ability to align Cooper pairs.

Color doesn’t matter (hehehe, words are funny!).

I could be wrong. And that would make a whole bunch of scientists wrong too. But I think that this Dias guy is a huckster.

Long live FUD!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

[...]When they dialed the pressure back up to as little as 0.3 gigapascals, the blue fleck turned pink as the electrical resistance plunged to zero. The substance reached a peak superconducting temperature of 294 K—7° warmer than the original CSH and truly room temperature—at pressures of 1 gigapascal. Magnetic measurements also showed the sample repelled an externally applied magnetic field, a hallmark of superconductors. The paper, the authors say, went through five rounds of review.[...]

‘Revolutionary’ blue crystal resurrects hope of room temperature superconductivity

a reply to: Insurrectile

I read that too. It appears to check off all the criteria for SC.

But look at the current (words are funny!) SC material in the TMD family (lutetium can be considered as the the first transition metal) and it is tantalum-selenium at 4.5 GPa. The Tc is still something like 4K, not anywhere near to room temperature, and that is the highest temperature TMD known!

So chemically, the arrangement doesn’t appear to be anything remarkable let alone a HTSC.

On the other side of the lantide family, they have had success with doping lanthanum (along with other molecules) with hydrogen as a substitute for pure metallic hydrogen. That still requires hundreds of GPa of pressure.

My thinking on the whole pressure thing is to encase your HTSC material in carbon nanotube reducing its availability to move freely-i.e., under pressure!

And if frequency has anything to do with it, you should be able to excite the CNT to jump start the SC material.

But that is neither here nor there because of the OP being the topic. And as far as that goes…

I am very cautious about this announcement because this is the same guy who had to retract his previous RTSC paper because it was found to have apparent evidence of false data.

I want a room temperature superconductor as much as the next guy but I don’t think this is it.

My opinion. I could be wrong. And I will be the first to admit it!

Like most of the rare earth elements isn't redmatter only found in China?
I googled my question but couldn't get a straight answer. 🤔

originally posted by: AOx6179
Like most of the rare earth elements isn't redmatter only found in China?
I googled my question but couldn't get a straight answer. 🤔

Lutetium is obtained from the minerals bastnasite and monazite, where it occurs as an impurity and is mined in the USA, china, Russia, Australia and India.1 In southern West Virginia it is generally found in areas where the No. 5 Block, Stockton, Coalburg and Winifrede coals containing high Lu (>0.40 ppm) are mined. Lowest Lu samples are also concentrated in north central West Virginia.

All the big fellas, actually.

originally posted by: Sovaka
a reply to: pteridine

The answer to both was in the article.
20.5°C for temperature and 145,000 PSI for pressure.

Yes. I was pointing out that maintaining a conductor at 10,000 atmospheres might be a practical problem. It is easier to cool conductors, such as NMR magnets, than to pressurize them.

originally posted by: imthegoat

originally posted by: AOx6179
Like most of the rare earth elements isn't redmatter only found in China?
I googled my question but couldn't get a straight answer. 🤔

Lutetium is obtained from the minerals bastnasite and monazite, where it occurs as an impurity and is mined in the USA, china, Russia, Australia and India.1 In southern West Virginia it is generally found in areas where the No. 5 Block, Stockton, Coalburg and Winifrede coals containing high Lu (>0.40 ppm) are mined. Lowest Lu samples are also concentrated in north central West Virginia.

All the big fellas, actually.

Rare earths occur in the partings and bed of Hazard #4 coal in southern WV. One problem is that most power plants mix coals and the ash is further diluted. I think one of the Cherokee power plants in NC may use only Hazard coal and their ash should be a recoverable source. There are also phosphate mining wastes in Florida that are sources of rare earths (not really rare but rare in concentrated deposits) along with rejects from Thorium recovery in NC for use in gas light mantles over a century ago.

a reply to: pteridine

Good to see you posting, pteridine.

Cheers