Tracking LK-99 Superconductor Replication Efforts and One Sees Meissner Effect

Huanzhong Univesity and Iris Alexander claim to have replicated and seen some Meissner effect. Berkeley Lab and Shengyang lab have separate theory papers with simulation on how and why LK99 and variants will work. There are at least a dozen publicly announced or rumored replication efforts.

BREAKING UPDATES: Two theoretical papers from national labs support LK-99 .


1. Berkeley National Lab simulations support that LK-99 structure can support and enable superconductivity.

Simulations show – interesting conduction pathways only form when the copper atom percolates into the less likely location in the crystal lattice, or the ‘higher energy’ binding site. This means the material would be difficult to synthesize since only a small fraction of crystal gets its copper in just the right location. ie. Difficult to make unless changes are made to the procedure, but if we make it then it will work

2. China National Lab (Shenyang) first principles analysis suggest gold and silver doping LK-99 will make superconductors as well.

3. Under the guidance of Professor Chang Haixin, postdoctoral Wu Hao and doctoral student Yang Li of the School of Materials Science and Technology of Huazhong University of Science and Technology they have successfully verified and synthesized the LK-99 crystal. It can be magnetically levitated for the first time and this is shown on a bilibili video. They expect to realize the true sense of non-contact superconducting magnetic levitation.

There is a partial list of the known professional and amateur efforts at replicating the LK-99 superconductor experiments. It is partial because something this potentially huge and this simple will have hundreds of efforts to replicate. IF this is ultimately proven to work, there will be high school and undergraduate lab projects to make room temperature superconductors starting in the fall of this year. Tracking table is Guderian2nd’s table on the discussion thread on Spacebattles.

The list has links to the different announcements and other public information from the replication efforts.

So, on to the actual meat of concept.

I had everything to reproduce the experiement on hand and we kinda needed a good buck converter for a different project.

So I was promised a beef steak with potato and asparagus if I improve the protocol until Tuesday.

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 29, 2023

So, the first thing I have seen is.

They obtain lanarkite through baking PbO and PbSO4 which is insane. Lanarkite is a primary precipitate in aqueous solutions outside of “concentrated sulphuric acid” acidity. Here I used 1/100 of my solutions (i. e. 1/10000 of product) pic.twitter.com/qJWwrD9ER5

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 29, 2023

The article says that they acquired the Cu3P in a vacuum furnace at 550°C in 48 hours.

This is remarkable because it takes 15 minutes on Матрёна in a usual flask with helium. pic.twitter.com/JsdEMwddKu

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 29, 2023

Oh no, it’s not angry, I can do angrier yet without going murderous.

It worked already, I had a Meissner effect of around 10% in their “sealed ampoule” protocol, it’s the way it was done that made me pissed and I was complaining about it loudly until my sister went “bet”

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 29, 2023

Fanservice pic.twitter.com/f7BHFZPqHP

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 30, 2023

I am 200% certain that every one of these fucking high power high quality synchrotron X-ray sources in Japan and China has gotten at least one chunk of it from the original lab lmao. You’ll be flooded and go “горшочек не вари” in no time https://t.co/mWuJHlapjS

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 30, 2023

Okay, recap time.

There are three claims in the LK-99 preprint.

1. They made a synthesis platform

2. It produces peculiar structure

3. There’s also superconductor in there

4. Peculiar structure produces superconductivity at RT https://t.co/rdWXTaVCk1

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 30, 2023

My claim is that their synthesis platform sucks and can be improved. Unfortunately, I am stupid.

That’s it. It’s basically a flavour text to watch Kin-dza-dza! with

— Iris (@iris_IGB) July 30, 2023

Not on the forum list is the Condensed Matter Theory Center (CMTC) at @UofMaryland is a research center for condensed matter physics.

Not of the list is University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The Journal Science article that reported the Argonne National Lab work also reports University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Quotes from the Journal Science

“They come off as real amateurs,” says Michael Norman, a theorist at Argonne National Laboratory. “They don’t know much about superconductivity and the way they’ve presented some of the data is fishy.” On the other hand, he says, researchers at Argonne and elsewhere are already trying to replicate the experiment. “People here are taking it seriously and trying to grow this stuff.” Nadya Mason, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign says, “I appreciate that the authors took appropriate data and were clear about their fabrication techniques.” Still, she cautions, “The data seems a bit sloppy.”

The general public seems oddly pumped about how ‘easy’ the 4-day, multistep, small batch, solid state synthesis is,” Jennifer Fowlie, a condensed matter physicist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, quipped on Twitter. “Some of you haven’t had blisters from overusing your pestle and it shows.” Nevertheless, physicists will put the claim to the test very quickly, Norman predicts: “If this is real, we’ll know within a week.”

The very last CMTC tweet on the LK-99 room-temperature SC claim: Several experimental groups are making their own samples to test for superconductivity. Results should be forthcoming, we will tweet again if anything interesting comes out. Theoretically, high-T_c is ‘allowed’.

— Condensed Matter Theory Center (@condensed_the) July 29, 2023

Collège de France. Jean-Marie Tarascon’s lab!

— zoubair (@zoubairezzz0595) July 31, 2023

Just appreciate this for a second:

There are thousands of people supporting/helping/trying to make LK99 in labs around the world and as best as I can tell, it’s all being organized here and nowhere else.

If this is the breakthrough for humanity it could still be, it’s…

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) July 31, 2023

Polymarket at 25 on #LK99 and Manifold at 30!! That’s still “probably nope” but high enough that I start to ask if anyone’s done a realistic assessment of real-world implications, including both “LK99 doesn’t conduct a lot of current” and “What’s the chance it can be improved?”

— Eliezer Yudkowsky (@ESYudkowsky) July 31, 2023