What is it about?
This work was published in 2020. It is about a ternary compound of MgCaH12 with a cubic structure. It was shown to be a dynamically stable compound. In addition, it turns out to be a superconductor with Tc close to the room temperature. At that time, there were only a few reports on the superconductivity of ternary compounds.
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Why is it important?
In 2020, MgCaH12 was among the very first ternary compounds ever studied which exhibit superconductivity. This research work was the early theoretical prediction. In late 2023, there was an experimental evidence which showed that MgCaHx compounds can be synthesized and they undergo a phase transition to be a superconductor with a considerably high Tc. The composition x is still unknown, but it shows some agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental findings.
Perspectives
Around 2020, there were several studies on the superconductivity of CaH6 and MgH6, which exhibit superconductivity at a considerably high Tc. However, MgH6 seems to be a little bit unstable in the theoretical calculations. Thus, we thought that maybe the mixing of Mg/Ca could restore the stability of the compounds in terms of phonons. Surprisingly, this idea was working very well. At first, some comments were against the synthesis of Mg/Ca compounds as they rarely exist in nature. Nevertheless, in late 2023, some MgCaHx compouds were reported to be experimentally synthesized and they exhibit superconductivity with a considerably high Tc.
Assoc Prof Udomsilp Pinsook
Chulalongkorn University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Near-room-temperature superconductivity of Mg/Ca substituted metal hexahydride under pressure, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, December 2020, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.156434.
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