LK99 Q-Centre Company Updates Room Temperature Superconducting Patent and Claims Half of Thin Film is Superconducting

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The original LK99 room temperature superconducting company, Q-Centre, has information in their patent. They provide more detailed measurements, evidence and process description. They say the micron(s) thick thin film is nearly half superconductive material.

In 2008, the LK99 korean researchers founded the Quantum Energy Research Centre (퀀텀 에너지연구소; also known as Q-Centre) with other researchers from Korea University. Lee would later become CEO of Q-Centre, and Kim would become director of research and development.

Here is a copy of the english translation of the new LK99 patent.

The patent is at the Korean Patent site.

The Administrative reporting shows that the written submissions of the patent were made as late as August 2, 2023.

The matching international patent is here. WO2023027536 and WO2023027537

In the patent, they show and state there is superconducting levels of low resistance. The resistivity of LK-99 was 1/10,000 to 1/100,000 of copper.

For Example 4, the grains of the solid phase reaction were processed into a square shape and the resistance change according to the temperature change (304K ~ 382K) was measured using equipment (Power (voltage/current) Source KEITHLEY 228A, Sensitive Digital Voltmeter KEITHLEY 182, Probe Method: Measured using the 4-probe method) and the results are shown in FIG. 29. Referring to this, it can be seen that the ceramic compound according to the present invention exhibits superconductive properties.

In addition, FIG. 42 is a photograph of an experiment in which resistance was measured in real time for Example 4, and the measured resistance was approximately 10^-12 Ohms per centimeter. Very low resistance in Ohmcm.

Thanks to twitter user @8teAPi for the info on the patent info.

* More description of the vapor deposition process that makes the micron(s) thick thin film which is the only material claimed to be superconducting
* They claim they get 48.9% of the lead apatite thin film as superconductive. There is also lead compounds (40%) and Copper compounds (10%).
* The new description includes some silicon in the process
* lead apatite itself is an insulator and the korean team says they need doping and defects to make it into a superconductor
* The superconductor consists of lead apatite of phases with three different critical temperatures of Tc, I~50C, II~80C, III~125C
* In thin film, only Tc I, II were seen with resistance measurement
* they say there is diamagnetism and ferromagnetism. They say both of these are intrinsic to the mixture
* they say the Meissner effect is underneath the diamagnetism and ferromagnetism. They provide the method to measure the superconducting features
* Scanning Electron Microscope pictures of all the important phases in both methods
* much more detailed measurements and graphs

Solid State Synthesis
– they’ve described this before, but now include a little Silicon in the mixture. But they don’t say how the Si got in there!
– They claim they get 48.9% lead apatite which is superconductive, with two other lead compounds (40%) and Copper compounds (10%).
– However lead apatite itself is an insulator, they say they need doping and defects to make it into a superconductor
– I am still not clear where in the solid state process the superconductor emerges.

For both methods
– The superconductor consists of lead apatite of phases with three different critical temperatures of Tc, I~50C, II~80C, III~125C
– In thin film, only Tc I, II were seen with resistance measurement, while Tc II and III were seen with magnetic susceptability measurement due to higher sensitivity

Magnetism
– they admit diamagnetism, they admit ferromagnetism. They say both of these are intrinsic to the mixture
– they say the Meissner effect is underneath these, and they provide the method to measure it
– the secret is a very low magnetic field generated by the SQUID, while heating and cooling the material
– this allows detection of the expulsion of the flux by the superconductor

13 thoughts on “LK99 Q-Centre Company Updates Room Temperature Superconducting Patent and Claims Half of Thin Film is Superconducting”

  1. Honest ignorant question:

    you have a continuous thin film of lead apatite.

    how exactly do you measure what % of it is superconductive or not?

    across it’s length, from one side to the other? Across it’s width? Across it’s thickness?

    Ok, but how do you measure the % of it that is conductive?

    • “measure what % of it is superconductive” ?

      “they look at the color of the film deposited to indicate where it is superconductive”
      conductivity seems related to the color of that deposit/agglomerate (it’s one parameter described and the top diagram with ‘gray’ areas show that relation for superconductivity)

      “across it’s length” “Across it’s thickness?” ?
      both? (measuring color dependent areas with identified color areas through its (defined, known) film thickness(es) and including diverse conductivity (with known percentages of color/conductivity regions) for to verify previous measurements
      maybe they even measure if there are capacities for each area with applying voltage(?)

  2. ” lead apatite itself is an insulator and the Korean team says they need doping and defects to make it into a superconductor”

    It’s notable that the lattice properties necessary to make a superconductor don’t necessarily result in the presence of charge carriers. In theory you could have a material that would be a room temperature superconductor if there were any electrons present to actually carry a current, but there aren’t any electrons, so it remains an insulator.

    That actually matters, because you could always remedy the lack, in a variety of ways.

    A serious shortage of conduction band electrons would dramatically reduce critical current and field, even if the material would be an excellent superconductor otherwise. That might be consistent with some of the results that have been reported: That it’s behaving like a superconductor that has practically no charge carriers.

  3. “They claim they get 48.9% of the lead apatite thin film as superconductive.”

    Can then refine this to a substance that is 100% superconductive?
    I.E. Remove the 51.1% that is non-superconductive.

    • When would you need to do this? It is much cheaper to just ignore it. The primary use of it will likely be as a tape, plated onto a ribbon and surrounded by a laminate of flexible metal like copper or stainless steel of some kind. See e.g. the structure of REBCO(rare earth barium copper oxide, like YBCO) tapes. There is 1-2 microns of superconductor in a sandwich of various layers of cruft that is 100-200 microns thick.

      You don’t even need an insulator between windings to make a magnet out of this; the superconductor is so monstrously better than the copper mantle/laminate that current will follow along the superconductor even if windings are touching each other.

      • “the superconductor is so monstrously better than the copper mantle/laminate that current will follow along the superconductor even if windings are touching each other.”

        No, not really. While you don’t need a voltage to maintain a current in a superconducting coil, you need a voltage to create it in the first place. If you took a field free superconducting coil embedded in a copper matrix without insulators, and tried applying that voltage, some of it would start flowing through the superconductor, but the inductive nature of the coil would produce a significant back-emf, which would short across the copper.

        It would be a very inefficient way to bring up the current, even if it would eventually get you there. Very slowly indeed, probably.

        And, of course, if you had some random non-superconducting regions in a superconducting tape, as the length increased the odds of one of them bridging the entire tape at some point would converge on 100%. It would be like having a break in the wire.

        • yes and no (?),
          If dc and ‘slow’ current slope, there’s an even distribution of electrons through a (maybe in layers, homogeneous) conductor (might be comparable to Avogadro number each m3 (~10^23) or chatgpt mentioning this up to 10^28-10^29 (“For example, in a typical metal conductor, such as copper or aluminum, the number of free electrons per unit volume at close to zero Kelvin can be on the order of 10^28 to 10^29 electrons per cubic meter.”).
          If measurements introduce ac currents, there is additionally a skin effect, back-emf and possibly phase angle deviation between effective voltage and current
          Seems e.g. fusion components (magnets/coils on tokamak) demand controlled dc power(?) with AC/DC conversion from grid.
          (2011 ITER Coil Power Supply and Distribution System)
          “Abstract:
          The ITER Coil Power Supply and Distribution System (CPSDS) will be installed to receive power from the French 400 kV transmission grid and to provide controlled DC power to the superconducting tokamak magnets for plasma operation. The Coil Power Supply System (CPSS) consists of AC/DC converter units connected in series with Switching Network Units (SNU) and Fast Discharge Units (FDU) to provide the controlled DC for plasma initiation, current, shape and position control, error field correction, as well as superconductive magnet quench protection. The installed power of the ITER CPSS is nearly 2 GVA. Thyristor based technology is used for the AC/DC converters, with four-quadrant operation and circulating current capability introduced as a basic design feature due to the high current rating and DC voltage and current characteristics. The SNU and FDU comprise of large resistor banks inserted into the magnet coil circuits by means of opening appropriate circuit breakers. A complex DC busbar system will be integrated through various ITER buildings to connect all the components into the circuit. The CPSS will draw large power pulses from the grid, with short rise times and steps in active and reactive power. Rapid reactive power control is necessary for voltage stabilisation and compensation together with filters to eliminate harmonics generated by the power converters. Thus a Reactive Power Compensation and Harmonic Filtering (RPC&HF) system will be installed with an installed total power of 750 Mvar. As an integral system, the ITER CPSDS poses significant technical challenges due to the large scale, special requirements and complicated interfaces. The conceptual design of the ITER CPSDS has been successfully completed. Further engineering design work and fabrication will be performed under the responsibility of the ITER Domestic Agencies in China, Korea and Russia as part of the ITER procurement arrangements.”

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