Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan university have discovered a new superconducting material. They combined Iron, Nickel and Zirconium to create a new transition metal zirconide. While iron zirconide and nickel zirconide are not superconducting they share a similar phase diagram with unconventional superconducting materials.
The team of researchers led by Associate Professor Yoshikazu Mizuguchi conceived of this new superconducting material after an undergraduate project began combining these materials in different ratios and confirmed that the resulting alloy had the same crystal structure as other promising superconductors.
Superconductors play an active role in today’s technologies from magnets in medical devices to maglev systems. The main problem with these superconductors is that they need to be cooled to extremely low temperatures which is why scientists are always trying to find superconductors that operate at higher temperatures.
While we don’t have room temperature superconductors yet discoveries like these inspire people to continue researching and leave us excited to see what discoveries are made next.
