4 ms·
So what the heck has happened with LK-99 really?
- carabiner 3y agoThis is good. Maybe the most cogent explanation that ties together all that's happened so far. If this does turn out to be an anisotropic type-I superconductor, do you think it'll win a Nobel?
- sanxiyn 3y agoThat's entirely a sociological(!) question and hard to answer. I think it deserves a Nobel, but I am less confident whether it will actually win a Nobel.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- garte 3y agoCould someone ELI5 to me what's missing for LK-99 to be a "real" superconductor?
- adhe98 3y agoDisclaimer : Don't trust me. Superconductors were thought to be "isotropic", but LK-99 seems to be "anisotropic". The original model requires superconductivity (zero resistance) in all directions, but LK-99 is only superconductive in certain directions.
- Method-X 3y agoFascinating. How would this affect commercial application?
- appplication 3y agoNot a materials scientist, but I imagine it will make fabrication at scale a bit more tricky.
- simne 3y agoNearly all macromaterials used in commercial applications are isotropic, because anisotropic need special handling and special technologies, make them very expensive. For example, all metal conductors in chips are isotropic, mean, conduct current equally in vertical or in horizontal directions. Imagine, conductor become anisotropic, for example magnitudes more conductive horizontal than vertical (to be strict, usually this mean, crystal material, which have crystal axis and some properties aligned with axis). In this case we have to make some bridges between horizontal and vertical parts of conducting path, and make horizontal and vertical parts by two separate tech process steps (really will be third step for bridge), so for vertical part, material will be oriented to best conduct vertical, and for horizontal part, to best conduct horizontal. So automatically, conductors will have 3x tech process steps if compare with isotropic materials. And I consider, we have automatically got some bridge material (and tech process), but this could be additional hassle (big, expensive R&D). In reality, frequently, crystal materials grow "automatically" aligned to base substrate (most semiconductor chips based on mono-crystal), so to change conductor crystal axis orientation, need some additional trick (so fourth step), etc,etc. All these considerations very similar to using special isotopes in chips, which already today claimed base crystal will ~50% better heat conductor, so automatically will got significant grow of working frequency, but in real production tests nothing special achieved, just much grown expenses.
- adhe98 3y agoThanks for the great article. To summarize, it's not that flying cars are coming tomorrow, but it's a huge discovery that will be in physics textbooks soon. I'm no expert, so I shouldn't say anything, but I think this is less dramatic than people expected. Bummer. I thought global warming was going to be solved tomorrow.
- anagram666 3y agoGlobal warming is already solved, but no one wants to do it because fossil fuel profits are easier and higher than the alternatives.
- Sevastopol 3y agoChina had to backtrack some green energy goals for the sake of energy security and they're the largest green energy manufacturing country. Not everything is an oil company conspiracy. Some things just take time...