Researchers Find Extraordinarily High Temperature Superconductivity in Bio‐Inspired Nanopolymer

Forty‐two years ago, Johannes Georg Bednorz and Karl Alex M̈ller startled the world with their unexpected discovery of superconductivity in layered copper oxide perovskites at temperatures substantially higher than previously thought possible. The history of this breakthrough is well known, and a large number of related compounds were found over the succeeding years, culminating in 2002 with Au‐2223—a triple‐layer CuO complex with an ambient‐pressure transition temperature of 175 K, synthesized by Paul Chu and his collaborators in Houston. Such materials have found a number of communications and electric power applications, especially in distribution cables, transformers and passive RF filters, but remain limited by the need for cryogenic packaging.