The past few weeks have seen a huge surge of interest among scientists and the public in a material called LK-99 after it was claimed to be a superconductor at room temperature and ambient pressure.
LK-99 garnered attention after South Korean researchers posted two papers about it on arXiv, a non-peer-reviewed repository for scientific reports, on July 22. The researchers reported possible indicators of superconductivity in LK-99, including unexpectedly low electrical resistance and partial levitation in a magnetic field.
The potential discovery drew enthusiasm on social media and was widely reported in traditional media too. As a physicist working on quantum phenomena in materials, I was gratified to see the interest in superconductivity, and I shared in the excitement about the report. But I also approached the results with scepticism, especially since many previous reports of room-temperature superconductivity have failed to be reproduced.
Now, after follow-up experiments by scientists around the world, it seems LK-99 is not so special after all. However, while this particular avenue of research may be a dead end, the dream of a room-temperature superconductor is still very much alive.
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