Physicists Set a New Ambient-Pressure Superconductivity Record
University of Houston researchers raised a mercury-based ceramic to superconduct at 151 Kelvin without sustained pressure, the highest ambient-pressure transition temperature ever recorded.
ScienceGNGV Editorial Team5 min read
Physicists at the University of Houston have broken a record that had stood for decades, raising the temperature at which a material becomes superconducting at ordinary atmospheric pressure to 151 Kelvin, about minus 122 degrees Celsius. Reported on March 9, 2026, the result surpasses the previous ambient-pressure record of 133 Kelvin and marks the highest transition temperature ever measured at ambient pressure since superconductivity was first discovered in 1911.
Superconductors carry electricity with zero resistance, meaning they lose no energy as heat, but historically only at extremely cold temperatures or under crushing pressures impractical for everyday use. The Houston team, led by physicists Ching-Wu Chu and Liangzi Deng of the Texas Center for Superconductivity, worked with a well-known mercury-based copper-oxide ceramic called Hg1223. Their key innovation was a technique called pressure quenching: they applied intense pressure to enhance the material’s superconducting properties, then rapidly released that pressure while keeping the material cold, locking in the improved state without any need for ongoing squeezing.
The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By demonstrating that a high transition temperature can be preserved at ambient pressure, the researchers offer a fresh strategy for the long quest to find materials that superconduct closer to everyday conditions, an advance that could eventually transform power grids, medical imaging, and transportation.
The breakthrough comes with honest limits. At 151 Kelvin the material still requires substantial cooling, far from the room-temperature superconductor that remains physics’ holy grail, and pressure-quenched samples must be studied carefully to understand how stable the state truly is over time. Even so, raising a decades-old ceiling is a meaningful step. It validates pressure quenching as a real tool and gives the field a renewed sense that the gap to practical superconductivity, while still wide, is gradually closing.
