Exploratory Study Of Novel Oxide Conductors

Metal oxides offer a host of important properties such as photocatalysts, semiconductors, superconductors, battery and fuel cell components, magnetic , ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics and catalysts. Here we have observed important new phenomena utilising a previously unexplored doping strategy. The purpose of this project is to validate these findings and if successful to establish an important new strand of oxide materials research.

Demonstration of a novel superconductor with critical temperature above 100K that does not contain copper and only contains some of the lowest cost and most abundant materials on earth will have considerable impact. Industrially this could reopen the huge prospects for superconducting materials in applications such as superconducting magnetic energy storage, low loss electrical transmission, Josephson devices, superconducting electronics, high field magnets.

Such a discovery would create considerable popular interest and would even make a major contribution to repopularisation of science, attracting young scientists and engineers to study at University.

If the phenomena that we have observed are validated the possible impacts are really extraordinary. If we fail to capitalise on these findings and others either report before us or outperform us then the UK will lose the benefits of this impact, hence the importance of a rapid exploratory study.