Abstract / Description of output
Seven distinct families of superconductors with critical temperatures at ambient pressure that equal or surpass the historic 23 K limit for Nb3Ge have been discovered in the last 25 years. Each family is reviewed briefly and their common chemical features are discussed. High temperature superconductors are distinguished by having a high (>= 50%) content of nonmetallic elements and fall into two broad classes. 'Metal-nonmetal' superconductors require a specific combination of elements such as Cu-O and Fe-As which give rise to the highest known T-c's, probably through a magnetic pairing mechanism. 'Nonmetal-bonded' materials contain covalently bonded nonmetal anion networks and are BCS-like superconductors. Fitting an extreme value function to the distribution of T-c values for the known high-T-c families suggests that the probability of a newly discovered superconductor family having maximum T-c > 100 K is similar to 0.1 to 1%, decreasing to similar to 0.02 to 0.2% for room temperature superconductivity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 4756-4764 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Materials Chemistry |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 13 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 7 Apr 2011 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- QUATERNARY BOROCARBIDES
- HAFNIUM NITRIDE
- MAGNETISM
- SYSTEM
- BA1-XKXBIO3
- FULLERIDES
- TRANSITION