Scientists concoct material that superconducts at room temperature

While the temperature at which superconduction has occurred has been steadily rising throughout history, a potential breakthrough could open up a whole new world of possibilities in the computing realm. Reportedly, a pair of mad scientists from Canada and Germany have developed a silicon-hydrogen compound that can superconduct at room temperature. The secret, they say, is that the silane-based matter is "super-compressed," and they were able to achieve such compression by "adding hydrogen to a compound with silicon that reduced the amount of compression needed to achieve superconductivity." Granted, the work done so far was classified as "theoretical," but hopefully it won't be long (read: during our lifetime would be nice) before such technology finds its way into gaming rigs (among other things) the world over.

Update: According to a report from ReducedMass, the original EETimes article misinterpreted data about this project. Superconductivity at room temperatures is not possible yet, though the research done here could be harnessed to achieve those results in the future.

[Via Slashdot]

[x3qt0r @ Mar 20th 2008 9:32AM]

Another step closer to the attainment of Electric reign.

[Rocketboy @ Mar 20th 2008 2:36PM]

Electric Rain!

(I move away from the mike to breathe)

[mcheddadi @ Mar 20th 2008 9:33AM]

gaming rigs the world over? Isn't there better things like flying cars and renewable energies blablah?

[saad @ Apr 12th 2008 12:46AM]

I agree, superconductors are the holy grail of all things electric, not just gaming rigs. :P

[Matt @ Mar 20th 2008 10:32AM]

mcheddadi, Maybe it would be easier for you to spot this kind of tongue-in-cheek aside in these reports if the writer were to add some crass smiley or the phrase "(Joke Joke)" after the sentence. Personally I like being able form a wry smile whilst reading these without the need of any such overt aids.

Matt. (Trolling for fun and profit since '72)

[LordZargon @ Mar 20th 2008 9:38AM]

Holy Moly Matman!! I've been keeping ears out for news like this!

Finally, no voltage needed, no resistance! Bet it costs a lot though... lol

[Addex @ Mar 20th 2008 9:49AM]

If successful they will get a Nobel Prize for this.

[NovaLand @ Mar 20th 2008 10:27AM]

Unfortunally, superconductivity has already generated a nobel prize and I doubt they'll give it away again. Adding "in room temperature" is just another step. Like the difference between curing cancer and curing a cold, what's the big fuzz?

[NovaLand @ Mar 20th 2008 12:39PM]

...By the ranking I assume that putting sarcasm and facts in one post is too much to handle for the average engadget reader.. =P

[lordebon @ Mar 20th 2008 2:53PM]

Or maybe you're just really bad at sarcasm.

[purezerg @ Mar 20th 2008 4:09PM]

not nobel but probably pulitzer prize

[Jason @ Mar 20th 2008 9:52AM]

Metallic Hydrogen is predicted to be superconducting up to 290K+. Now if we can just make some stable samples...

I guess the silicon lattice creates some kind of synthetic Metallic Hydrogen structure?

[UKNigel @ Mar 20th 2008 11:17AM]

290K really isn't that hot, only 62.3F. My house is warmer than that. I guess you would have to hope the "+" means a lot, like maybe an extra 15K for a gaming rig.

[Bill @ Mar 20th 2008 10:30AM]

Somebody call Larry Niven!

[spacegravity4me @ Mar 20th 2008 10:41AM]

Seriously, it's about freakin time. And yes dude, flying cars.

[aeo @ Mar 20th 2008 10:42AM]

"Theoretical" doesn't pay the bills.

[Adam @ Mar 20th 2008 10:50AM]

resistance is futile

[tcc3 @ Mar 20th 2008 11:27AM]

{slow clap}

I bow to your pun skills.

[Jagannath A @ Mar 20th 2008 12:13PM]

that suffices as a thesis for your PhD in Humour ;)

[Rex @ Mar 20th 2008 2:14PM]

okey... i give up, i admit that i am *deep swallow* an idiot, and thus didn't get the reference...please help?

[r3loaded @ Mar 20th 2008 2:40PM]

@Rex
Superconduction = no electrical *resistance* in material at all. You get it now?

[Tim McDonald @ Mar 20th 2008 10:59AM]

Actually, according to published reports, the work is both experimental and theoretical.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=HTTOTGYXPCPWSQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=206904213

[alexjag @ Mar 20th 2008 11:24AM]

So, like, the superconducting Toyotas will be out in 2009 then?

[nh @ Mar 20th 2008 11:28AM]

The sooner we can banish all these dreadful semiconducters and replace them with far superior superconductors the better. Super > 2 x semi. Fact.

[Rob @ Mar 20th 2008 11:37AM]

There is one key fact that was left out. The silane-based matter is actually Hydrazine, which is an explosive. So yea I would say the scientist were definitely mad to use it. Learned about this discovery in my computer hardware design class the other day.

[macona @ Mar 20th 2008 2:13PM]

No kidding. The local Maxim Semiconductor fab by my house has a silane leak last summer. For several blocks around the area was evacuated while they found and fixed the leak.

Nasty stuff! Burns when in contact with air.

[Sy @ Mar 20th 2008 11:57AM]

If this is true, it will have profound implications on the human race and here is Engadget thinking about gaming rigs. Its either a warp sense of humor or an out of whack sense of perspective.

[Scott @ Mar 20th 2008 12:24PM]

While this is certainly good news, it's not going to lead to either hyper gaming rigs or a fantastic utopia without a lot more work. TFA says this is happening under some pretty special conditions, like high pressure.

The main ingredient, silane, is a gas at room temperature so it still takes a whole lot of pressure to make it a solid...more than you're going to be able to sustain in your house or in a wire, circuit board, etc.

Also, silane is pretty scary stuff itself. It spontaneously ignites on contact with air. I've worked with it quite a bit and you have to be very careful around it. I'm sure peeps who work in semiconductor manufacturing can back me up on this.

Personally, if I need semiconducting materials I would much rather keep my GeForce 99999Ultra immersed in liquid helium than make it out of ultra-compressed silane.

So yeah, it's awesome news and there's a lot of potential here. But don't sell your gaming rig just yet.

[John Stracke @ Mar 20th 2008 5:39PM]

"It spontaneously ignites on contact with air."—Mightn't it explode if it ignites while under pressure? (This is how chemical explosives generally work: a runaway reaction whose outputs take up more volume than its inputs.) If your superconductor develops a small leak, and some of it reaches the air and ignites, it seems like the fire would spread back into the container and ignite the rest. If it burns too fast for the reaction products to escape through the leak, then the pressure will build up and burst the container.

I'm sure the researchers know this, of course; the question is whether they'll be able to produce a variant that won't spontaneously ignite.

[arvin @ Mar 20th 2008 12:42PM]

Pre-stressed packaging may be used to produce the high pressures necessary without any active pressurizing systems. Cooling, on the other hand, can only be done through active refrigerating systems.

Although manufacturing might still be expensive (depending on the pressures required), the new material (if it, um, materializes), will allow superconducting applications where bulky, power hogging and unreliable cooling systems can't be used.

[For2itous @ Mar 20th 2008 12:50PM]

Old news guys--Zubin Mehta's been super conducting at room temperature for years...

[bernardino @ Mar 20th 2008 1:17PM]

It'd be great if they could use it in mag-lev trains!

[KarlW @ Mar 20th 2008 1:23PM]

Awesome discovery.

Hopefully cables produced with this material will allow long wires without repeaters. Looks like BT's broadband claims are finally going to become realistic.

[frankXchange @ Mar 20th 2008 1:53PM]

This would change much more than everything listed thus far. It will be even more profound than the invention of the computer, largely because the technological, industrial and social changes it would create would occur much more rapidly (thanks to the computer).

[Leon_tel @ Mar 20th 2008 3:06PM]

I doubt this is true. While H can isolate layered Si but long distance superconduct would not be fulfilled.

[Bobby @ Mar 20th 2008 3:17PM]

It's worth pointing out that these scientists *are not* announcing that they have created a room temperature superconductor! They have found a new technique that *their theory* says could scale to room temperature (presumably with more pressure or better production processes).

It's exciting, but it's not room temperature superconductor yet.

I did work several months as a lab grunt for Dr Sheng, the guy who discovered the thallium superconductor that held the world record for high temperature superconductivity for some years, so I have at least a vague clue of what I'm talking about... (I also have a BS in physics, but it's been long enough that I'm not sure if that's of any value now)

[Adam @ Mar 23rd 2008 8:49PM]

http://reducedmass.com/2008/03/22/superconductors-at-room-temp-not-reached-comments-from-researcher-inside/

[hewholaughslast @ Mar 26th 2008 11:56AM]

i was screaming to myself about the possibilities this would open up for a few seconds and then i read down to the update.... and i got pissed