In Review

Photograph by J. Adam Fenster

ROOM TEMPERATURE RECORD: A team led by Ranga Dias, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and of physics and astronomy, reported a new record this fall in the race to develop materials that have superconducting properties at room temperature.

By compressing molecular solids with hydrogen at extremely high temperatures, Dias’s team created a combination of materials that was superconducting at about 58 degrees Fahrenheit, easily surpassing the previous high of about 8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Long sought by material scientists, such practicable superconductors—materials that have no electrical resistance or magnetic field—could revolutionize transportation, power generation, imaging, and have applications across many areas.

For now, the materials only exist inside a diamond anvil cell (pictured), a research device used to examine minuscule amounts of materials under pressure rivaling the center of the earth, but Dias is exploring materials that could be superconducting at much lower pressures.