Physicists found the temperature at which carbon nanotubes become superconductors

Scientists from Ural Federal University (UrFU) together with their colleagues from Lomonosov Moscow State University, have discovered a mathematical method to calculate the temperature at which single-walled carbon nanotubes became superconductors and developed a way to increase it, thus opening new prospects for superconductive materials application. The work was published in Carbon journal.

Superconducting materials that are able to conduct electricity without resistance are used in cyclotrons, magnetic trains, power lines and super-sensitive magnetometers (devices used to measure the Earth's magnetic field). Still, the main issue with superconductivity is that it is expressed at temperatures slightly above absolute zero (-273°C). If a material is superconductive around -70°C, it is aiming at a record. The leader among all materials is hydrogen sulfide frozen under incredible pressure—it becomes a superconductor at -70°C.

"Room temperature superconductivity is the dream of humanity. For example, your mobile phone would not need to recharge anymore, and electricity can run forever," says Dr. Chi Ho Wong, a postdocof Ural Federal University and a co-author of the work.