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<\/a><\/p>\nThe research by UH physicists Ching-Wu Chu and Liangzi Deng was\u00a0published March 9<\/a>\u00a0in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work was funded by\u00a0Intellectual Ventures<\/a>, a global invention and investment company, the state of Texas via TcSUH and other foundations.<\/p>\n \u201cTransmitting electricity in the grid loses about 8% of the electricity,\u201d said Chu, professor of physics, TcSUH founding director and the paper\u2019s senior author. \u201cIf we conserve that energy, that\u2019s billions of dollars of savings and it also saves us lots of effort and reduces environmental impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n Superconductors allow electricity to flow without resistance, which makes them useful for improving electrical grids, building advanced medical imaging systems, enabling fusion energy technologies and developing faster electronics. However, most superconductors must be cooled to extremely low temperatures, which makes them expensive and difficult to use.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we bring the material to ambient pressure, it becomes much more accessible for scientists to use well-developed instrumentation to investigate it and further develop technologies for ambient condition operations,\u201d said Deng, assistant professor of physics, principal investigator at the TcSUH and lead author of the paper.<\/p>\n Breaking the Temperature Barrier<\/p>\n For more than a half century, scientists made steady progress in their search for new kinds of superconducting materials with higher Tc. A groundbreaking 1987 discovery by Chu and colleagues found a material called YBCO reaches superconductivity at minus 180 degrees C, or 93 K, ushering in the worldwide race to develop high-temperature superconductors.<\/p>\n Subsequently, a mercury-based, copper-oxide ceramic, known as Hg1223, that superconducts at up to minus 140 degrees C, or 133 K, was discovered in 1993 and held the ambient pressure record Tc until now.<\/p>\n The UH team increased it by 18 degrees C to reach 151 K.<\/p>\n This advance was made possible through a technique known as pressure quenching \u2014 a new approach for superconductors, though commonly used in other areas such as creating diamonds. In this method, researchers first apply intense pressure to the material to enhance its superconducting properties and raise its transition temperature.<\/p>\n While the material is under pressure, it is cooled to a specific temperature and rapidly released from pressure completely, effectively \u201clocking in\u201d the enhanced superconducting properties. Using this method, the researchers were able to preserve the higher Tc even after the pressure was removed, allowing the material to remain stable under normal conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cOther researchers have shown that reaching superconductivity at room temperature under pressure is achievable,\u201d Chu said. \u201cOur method shows that it is possible to retain that state without maintaining pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Pushing the Research Forward<\/p>\n Although ambient-pressure room-temperature superconductivity \u2014 around 300 K \u2014 remains the ultimate goal, researchers said the new record represents an important step forward and is significant in the world of superconductivity.<\/p>\n \u201cThis finding has great potential,\u201d Chu said. \u201cWe believe, with enough people working on it and given enough time, we should be able to realize the potential.\u201d<\/p>\n