Scientists at the University of Houston have set a new world record for superconductivity at ambient pressure, achieving 151K and bringing practical, room-temperature superconductors closer to reality.
The discovery was made by researchers at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH) and the university’s Department of Physics. The team reported that their material reached a superconducting transition temperature of 151 Kelvin, which equals about minus 122 degrees Celsius. This is the highest temperature ever recorded for a superconductor operating at normal atmospheric pressure.
Superconductivity occurs when a material allows electricity to flow with zero resistance. In such materials, electric current can move without losing energy as heat. This property makes superconductors extremely valuable for improving power transmission, medical equipment, high-speed electronics, and future fusion energy systems.
The research was published on March 9 in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Physicists Ching-Wu Chu and Liangzi Deng led the study, with funding from Intellectual Ventures, the state of Texas, and several research foundations.
Scientists have been trying to increase the superconducting transition temperature for decades. The higher this temperature becomes, the easier and cheaper it is to use superconducting materials in real-world technologies.
“Transmitting electricity in the grid loses about 8% of the electricity,” Chu said. “If we conserve that energy, that’s billions of dollars of savings, and it also saves us lots of effort and reduces environmental impacts.”
Why Superconductors Matter
Superconductors have many potential applications. Power grids using superconducting cables could transmit electricity with almost no energy loss. Hospitals already use superconducting magnets in MRI scanners. The technology also plays a role in particle accelerators, magnetic levitation trains, and experimental fusion reactors.
However, most known superconductors work only at extremely low temperatures. Scientists must cool them using expensive liquid helium or nitrogen. This cooling requirement makes widespread use difficult and costly.
The new research focuses on materials that operate at higher temperatures while maintaining ambient pressure, meaning normal atmospheric conditions.
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“Once we bring the material to ambient pressure, scientists can use well-developed instruments to study it,” Deng said. “That helps researchers develop technologies that can work under normal conditions.”
The quest for higher-temperature superconductors has lasted more than half a century. A major breakthrough came in 1987, when Chu and his colleagues discovered a copper-oxide material called YBCO. That material became superconducting at 93 Kelvin (minus 180 degrees Celsius), which was considered extremely high at the time.
The discovery sparked an international race to find materials with even higher superconducting temperatures.
In 1993, scientists discovered another material called Hg1223, a mercury-based copper oxide ceramic. This compound reached a transition temperature of 133 Kelvin, which remained the world record for ambient pressure superconductivity for decades.
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The University of Houston team has now pushed that record even further.
Their new material reaches 151 Kelvin, increasing the previous record by 18 degrees Celsius.
A New Technique: Pressure Quenching
The breakthrough was made possible using a technique called pressure quenching.
In this method, scientists first apply very high pressure to a material. The pressure alters the internal structure of the compound, thereby improving its superconducting properties.
While the material remains under pressure, researchers cool it to a specific temperature. Then they rapidly release the pressure. This process locks the improved structure into place, allowing the material to keep its enhanced properties even after returning to normal pressure.
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Pressure quenching is commonly used in other fields of materials science. For example, it helps create synthetic diamonds. However, it has rarely been used in superconductivity research before.
“Our method shows that it is possible to retain the improved superconducting state without maintaining pressure,” Chu said.
The Race Toward Room Temperature
Despite the new record, scientists still have a major goal ahead: achieving superconductivity at room temperature, which is about 300 Kelvin.
For more than a century, researchers have described room-temperature superconductivity as the “holy grail” of physics and materials science. Achieving it would revolutionize energy transmission, computing technology, and transportation systems.
Rohit Prasankumar, director of superconductivity research at Intellectual Ventures, said the new discovery shows that scientists are moving closer to that goal.
“Room-temperature superconductivity has been seen as a ‘holy grail’ by scientists for over a century,” Prasankumar said. “The University of Houston team’s result shows that this goal is closer than ever before.”
However, there is still a large gap between the current record and room temperature.
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“The difference between the new record and room temperature is still about 140 degrees Celsius,” Prasankumar said. “Closing that gap will require strong collaboration between physicists, chemists, engineers, and materials scientists.”
Researchers believe their discovery could inspire new approaches in the search for better superconducting materials.
“This finding has great potential,” Chu said. “We believe that with enough researchers working on the problem and enough time, we can realize that potential.”
For now, the new record marks an important step forward in one of the most challenging scientific quests of modern physics.
