Korean Researchers Claim To Have A Room Temperature, Ambient Pressure Superconductor

And, more to the point, that materials used are abundant and the process to make the material is simple. From The Quantum Insider:

    While it has yet to be peer-reviewed and likely faces a great deal of scrutiny, a team of scientists are reporting on the preprint server ArXiv that they have achieved room-temperature superconductor using a modified lead-apatite — LK-99 — structure

    According to the paper, operating at ambient pressure, LK-99 exhibits superconductivity with a critical temperature greater than or equal to 400 K, or 127°C.

    The researchers demonstrated LK-99’s superconducting properties through various key parameters, including zero-resistivity, critical current (Ic), critical magnetic field (Hc) and the Meissner effect. Unlike previous attempts, the scientists said that LK-99’s superconductivity arises from a minute structural distortion caused by a slight volume shrinkage of 0.48%. This distortion is induced by the substitution of Cu2+ ions for Pb2+(2) ions in the insulating network of Pb(2)-phosphate, generating internal stress.

    The stress then transfers to Pb(1) of the cylindrical column, resulting in the distortion of the cylindrical column interface. The team said that this unique phenomenon creates superconducting quantum wells (SQWs) within the interface, contributing to LK-99’s superconducting capabilities.

    Heat capacity measurements provided supporting evidence for the proposed model, reinforcing LK-99’s ability to maintain its superconducting state at room temperatures and ambient pressure, the researchers report.

The article outlines a few of the advances and benefits that could come from a room temperature superconductor including "power transmission and distribution systems experience minimal energy losses due to virtually zero electrical resistance", improved energy storage systems, more widely available quantum computers because they wouldn't need elaborate cooling systems. And a lot more. 

    As this article at The Register points out, however, there are reasons for being skeptical, not the least that there have been other researchers make similar claims but later prove to not work.