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posted by chromas on Wednesday January 16 2019, @07:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-2-million-atmospheres dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The key to this discovery was creation of a metallic, hydrogen-rich compound at very high pressures: roughly 2 million atmospheres. The researchers used diamond anvil cells, devices used to create high pressures, to squeeze together miniscule samples of lanthanum and hydrogen. They then heated the samples and observed major changes in structure. This resulted in a new structure, LaH10, which the researchers previously predicted would be a superconductor at high temperatures.

While keeping the sample at high pressures, the team observed reproducible change in electrical properties. They measured significant drops in resistivity when the sample cooled below 260 K (minus 13 C, or 8 F) at 180-200 gigapascals of pressure, presenting evidence of superconductivity at near-room temperature. In subsequent experiments, the researchers saw the transition occurring at even higher temperatures, up to 280 K. Throughout the experiments, the researchers also used X-ray diffraction to observe the same phenomenon. This was done through a synchrotron beamline of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois.

 

Evidence for Superconductivity above 260 K in Lanthanum Superhydride at Megabar Pressures$ (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.027001)


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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday January 17 2019, @01:22PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday January 17 2019, @01:22PM (#787880) Homepage
    Not quite answering your question, but it's about the pressure at the centre of the earth. So "in" rather than "on".
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  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday January 17 2019, @02:03PM (1 child)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Thursday January 17 2019, @02:03PM (#787886)

    's ok that's what I was driving at - "could there be a natural phenomenon that happens to exploit, as yet undiscovered, high-temp superconductors?"

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @10:16AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @10:16AM (#788187)

      The issue is, how to dissipate the heat from the compression? To compress the sample using gravity, requires large planetary mass around it. Makes cooling (and else) impractical.

      We don't know of any nongravitational natural process able to sustain such pressures.