Scientists from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Skoltech have demonstrated the high-temperature superconductivity of actinium hydrides and discovered a general principle for calculating the superconductivity of hydrides based on the periodic table alone.
They have used a new algorithm to discover a material that could become a superconductor at close to room temperature. It will superconduct at minus 20°C (minus 4°F) – although it still needs to be squeezed under high pressure.
The actinides are a series of 15 metals with large atomic numbers 89 to 103 (actinium to lawrencium), sitting alongside that other weird ‘outside’ block of elements, the lanthanides.
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