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Latest news on LK-99, a compound that was claimed to be a room-temperature superconductor by a team of researchers from South Korea in July 2023. However, many attempts to replicate their results have failed, and most experts now agree that LK-99 is not a superconductor, but an insulator.

LK-99 is a gray-black polycrystalline material with a hexagonal structure similar to that of apatite. It is composed of copper, lead, phosphorus and oxygen. Its chemical formula is approximately Pb9Cu(PO4)6O.

The South Korean team reported that LK-99 exhibited zero electrical resistance and magnetic levitation at temperatures up to 127 °C (400 K) and normal pressure. They claimed that LK-99 was the first room-temperature superconductor ever discovered.

However, many other researchers tried to reproduce their findings and found no evidence of superconductivity in LK-99. Some of them discovered that the apparent superconducting properties were caused by impurities in the material, such as copper sulfide  Others showed that the structure and electronic properties of LK-99 made superconductivity unlikely or impossible.

The South Korean team has not shared their samples or provided a satisfactory explanation for their results. Some of their co-authors have admitted flaws or errors in their papers. The scientific community has largely dismissed their claim as erroneous or fraudulent.