7 ms·
Been following this very closely. Seems like the one takeaway is that whatever material this is, it's interesting. It's also difficult to synthesize in bulk, wh
by aqme28 3y ago
Been following this very closely. Seems like the one takeaway is that whatever material this is, it's interesting. It's also difficult to synthesize in bulk, which is a shame because superconductivity is not easy to observe in non-bulk materials (think: powder).
Note: I have a physics degree and a little bit of condensed matter experience, but nothing like anyone actually working in the field. Just some graduate courses and a bit of lab work experience.
- Panzer04 3y agoAssuming LK99 is legitimate, my hope is that the principles that make it work are more broadly applicable - and with that, refined production processes or newer alloys can be found. Simply knowing that it's possible would lead to a huge amount of research immediately focusing on this kind of thing. There's nothing more revolutionary than a discovery of a new class of materials. After all, we often name eras throughout our history after them :) (Stone age, etc)
- ant6n 3y ago> There's nothing more revolutionary than a discovery of a new class of materials. After all, we often name eras throughout our history after them :) (Stone age, etc) I wonder what was involved in the discovery of stone.
- vmilner 3y agoEvolution of enough intelligence to use stone as a club, or make an edge on flint for cutting?
- matusp 3y agoA rigorous peer review by graduate students.
- aurizon 3y agoI see the potential for a Far Side cartoon in that...
- kfarr 3y ago“Ooga ooga peer review…”
- marcusverus 3y agoAbstract: Our rigorous dialectic treatment shows that stone, while well suited for the smashing open of certain types of nut, is not well suited for any other purpose. Advocates from the more radical fringes of the tribe who suggest stone may be employed in varied areas such as warfare or even homebuilding(?!), are herein put in their proper place.
- DiogenesKynikos 3y agoThere are many different types of stones, and techniques for shaping them became progressively more sophisticated over time. With instruction, it would probably take you less than an hour to learn how to make the types of simple chopping stones that human ancestors used 1 million years ago. However, it takes much more considerable time and skill to learn how to make the types of stone tools humans were using 100k years ago. You get the sense that each group of ancient humans probably had an old expert toolmaker who passed on the trade to the next generation.
- tudorw 3y agohitting each other with every other available substance?
- justinclift 3y agoBeing in the wrong place, at the wrong time. ;)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- DrScientist 3y agoI think the Ice age came before the stone age - can't imagine those tools lasted very long - so Stone tools would have been a big advance :-)
- ljf 3y agoIce ages tools : https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/frozen-poop-knives-dont-work-very-well-in-case-you-were-wondering https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/frozen-poop-kn...
- civilitty 3y ago> I wonder what was involved in the discovery of stone. Mostly archaic humans hitting rocks against each other until they notice that flint knapping [1] creates a sharp edge. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapping
- bluerooibos 3y ago2023, the beginning of the... Room Temperature Superconductor Age!
- Qworg 3y agoThe RTS Age has a good ring to it.
- Eduard 3y agoThe CuO25P6Pb9 Age
- VierScar 3y agoWhy is it hard to make in bulk? I thought the chemicals were easy and cheap to obtain, and then you bake it at a high temp? What makes it difficult?
- aqme28 3y agoI don’t have really any expertise here but it looks like it bakes into a powder pretty much every time. Sure you get LK-99, but you can’t measure superconductivity in a powder since it’s a bulk property.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- beowulfey 3y agoThe variables that lead to its formation are not all accounted for yet. The process is understood, but it doesn’t always work. So there must be something missing every now and then.
- aydyn 3y agoSo they have a batch of the material as proof, but no idea how to exactly reproduce it? That would be a wild story if true.
- weard_beard 3y agoThe theory is the crystal structure induced by oxidation and vibration is responsible for the superconducting effect. They literally dropped and cracked the quartz ampoule by accident and produced the sample. Its not enough to produce the material itself, it seems it is an emergent property of the structure and formation of the material similar to piezoelectric effect?
- galangalalgol 3y agoNot that crazy. Steel was the same at first. Wild guess is that the dopant that creates wells doesn't always end up where it should. The paper that claimed superconductivity in layers of graphene at very particular angles also seems to be very sensitive. A similar one claimed graphene with alkanes was observed to superconduct. Perhapes whatever impure hydrocarbon they were using held the sheets at the perfect angle. All the quantum wells these things are claiming to rely on seem terribly difficult to arrange perfectly enough to work consistently. Assuming any of them ever did.
- jansan 3y ago> It's also difficult to synthesize in bulk Is there any hard limitation that prevents synthesizing in bulk? If not, I would not worry about this at the moment and if it proves to be a material with desirable properties just leave it up to the engineers who will hopefully find a suitable production process.
- aqme28 3y agoThere’s not really such a thing as superconductivity for a fine powder, so people are having trouble determining if this material even superconducts. edit to clarify: Bulk here refers to having a single chunk of the material, and does not refer to the total quantity. Some physical properties only exist or only surface in chunks of material, not in the powder form.
- XorNot 3y agoConversely, the tape-type high temperature superconductors are generally made with a colloidal deposition process - which is based on a powder as a starter material. Assuming this is real, that would be the obvious process by which to try and build useful conductors and magnets - it also suggests a refinement process (passing it over a magnet would quantum lock superconducting grains and let the rest slide off).
- justinclift 3y agoIs there's no sintering or other process that could fuse the power together into a solid? (obviously without destroying its useful properties)
- bradfox2 3y agoPaper mentions amorphous state plus an annealing step. Should be glass like at the end. If so, heat rates (up and down) of the last step are important and hardly mentioned.
- ChuckMcM 3y agoYup, and the "preprint" (which doesn't have a number of controls in the process) leaves a lot to be desired, so the "real" paper will presumably have some of this worked out. I expect things like the cooling rate (which affects crystal growth) and oxidation will both have variability in them.