Hacker Remix

Ask HN: What happened after LK-99?

5 points by colesantiago 1 week ago | 2 comments

There was a time where there was frothy hype around LK-99, the superconductor that 'worked' at room temperature.

VCs and angel investors were hyping on the socials about a dawn of a new era, committing to fund and pour billions into startups trying to capitalise on LK-99 and superconducting startups, material science was the new thing they all said.

And then everyone suddenly forgot about it?

Did more research go into this area as promised by the VCs?

What happened after LK-99?

gus_massa 1 week ago

Someone discovered that the properties were very similar to Copper Sulfide. The problem is that to make it you must mix two powders and heat them, but the heated mixed powers also produce Copper Sulfide as a contamination. In this case the contamination has very interesting properties that make it look similar to a superconductor, but it's not a superconductor. And that probably caused the mistake.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02585-7

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259023852...

fuzzfactor 1 week ago

I would imagine they didn't get as far as LK-100 ;)

OTOH, WD40 is still selling pretty well . . .