The University of Rochester (in New York) has announced a breakthrough in the goal to enable superconductivity at room temperature. Superconductivity has previously been possible at only extremely low temperatures. In a news release published on March 8th 2023 they stated the following:
“University of Rochester researchers have created a superconducting material at both a temperature and pressure low enough for practical applications.
“With this material, the dawn of ambient superconductivity and applied technologies has arrived,” according to a team led by Ranga Dias, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and of physics. In a paper in Nature, the researchers describe a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride (NDLH) that exhibits superconductivity at 69 degrees Fahrenheit and 10 kilobars (145,000 pounds per square inch, or psi) of pressure.
Although 145,000 psi might still seem extraordinarily high (pressure at sea level is about 15 psi), strain engineering techniques routinely used in chip manufacturing, for example, incorporate materials held together by internal chemical pressures that are even higher.”
The video below contains more information and features researchers who have been working on this endeavor.