S.Korean academics to verify truth of room-temperature superconductor

The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics has recently established a verification committee composed of experts in response to the ongoing controversy surrounding room-temperature superconductors.

The society issued a notice on its website on Wednesday, stating, "We have formed the verification committee for room-temperature superconductors to scientifically assess the current situation and arrive at clear conclusions."

Earlier, researchers from the Quantum Energy Research Center and others published a paper on the material "LK-99," claiming that it exhibits superconductivity under room temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions, on the preprint site "Archive" on July 22. However, this paper has not yet undergone academic validation.

This has sparked debates in the academic community both domestically and internationally, and some foreign researchers have presented their own verification results, leading to confusion.

The society explained that they initially intended to observe the verification results from domestic and international research organizations through normal channels. However, due to the considerable controversy over the authenticity of the results in the past few days and the emergence of other unverified claims from fellow researchers, they decided to establish the verification committee.

The committee's chairperson is Kim Chang-Young, the vice head of the Institute for Basic Science Center for strongly correlated electron systems and a professor at Seoul National University.

Based on the discussions held by the verification committee so far, it has been concluded that the data presented in the two papers and the publicly available videos do not support the claim that LK-99 is a room-temperature superconductor.

In response, the verification committee asked the Quantum Energy Research Center to submit LK-99 samples for undergoing measurements for the verification of room-temperature superconductors.

This verification process involves the participation of researchers from Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, and Pohang University of Science and Technology.

The society also mentioned that apart from the verification committee, ongoing research to reproduce LK-99 is being undertaken by the Center for Quantum Materials and Superconductivity at Sungkyunkwan University, the Laboratory of Superconducting Materials and Applications at Korea University, and the Center for Novel States of Complex Materials Research at Seoul National University.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com