Bilibili user says Chinese scientists have synthesized LK-99 crystal, enabling magnetical levitation

(ECNS) -- A content creator on Bilibili, a Chinese video social media video platform, announced Tuesday that Chinese scientists had successfully verified the synthesis of the LK-99 crystal that can be magnetically levitated, at alarger angle than that a previous sample obtained by a South Korean team led by Sukbae Lee.

This is expected to realize the true potential of room temperature, non-contact superconducting magnetic levitation.

According to the content creator, whose user name goes by Guanshankou Male Technician, the video originated from a team led by Chang Haixin, a professor at the School of Materials Science and Technology of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, with postdoctor Wu Hao and PhD student Yang Li.

According to a report by Cailian Press, Professor Chang confirmed that the experiment video came from the team. It has garnered over 7 million views as of 15:00 p.m. Wednesday.

In the released video, the LK-99 crystal synthesized by the research team appears as a "small black dot" under a microscope, with a diameter measured in micrometers.

Placing a neodymium iron boron magnet underneath, the "small black dot" continuously tilts or stands upright as the neodymium iron boron magnet approaches or moves away, exhibiting the same reactionat its the South pole or North pole, indicating that it's independent of magnetic poles and demonstrating diamagnetism.

But the content creator also pointed out that the experiment had only verified the Meissner effect. “Although this crystal exhibits diamagnetism, it is relatively weak and does not possess "zero resistance," and its overall behavior is similar to that of a semiconductor curve,” the publisher said, adding that even if LK-99 has superconducting properties, they are only in trace amounts of superconducting impurities, and unable to form a continuous superconducting path.

According to Shanghai Securities News, an insider stated that "Everything is not certain yet. Professor Chang advised us to pay attention to the official announcements that are made."

Previously, a team of South Korean scientists claimed to have discovered LK-99, the world's first room-temperature superconducting material, attracting attention from the globe. It is reported that this material is mainly a modified perovskite crystal structure (LK-99), a type of lead phosphate with copper doping.

But skepticism has arisen concerning the team's claims of LK-99's superconductivity, primarily due to the limited experimental data presented thus far. Currently, various research teams across the globe are working on synthesizing LK-99 to independently validate the reported experimental outcomes.