Cornell scientists have developed a self-assembling polymer that could be the superconductor of the future. The material is pliable and soft, like a plastic bottle, and self assembles in what the researchers call a “beautiful structure” that has unique superconducting properties. They remain uncertain, however, as to how or why the process works.

The research is an effort to achieve superconductivity at higher temperatures. Currently in MRI scanners and fusion reactors, superconductivity is possible only at near-absolute-zero temperatures. The material from Cornell could be the beginning of superconductivity at much higher temperatures.

The polymer is created when niobium oxide is heated, then exposed to an ammonia environment, then heated again. Although the researchers are examining the process, they don’t now understand why only the specific combination of heating, cooling, then reheating works to create the structure.

They say that the 3D gyroidal structure that the process produces divides space into two interpenetrating volumes that contain spirals and pores. Because the nanostructure has pores of approximately 10 nanometers, the structures have the potential to be used in new categories of superconductors. Using the pore structure, there may be the ability to direct how magnetic fields move across the material. There is also the potential to fill the pores with other materials to generate new superconductive structures or composite materials. Although the material can’t be used at room temperature today, it may be integrated with other compounds which have the potential for new properties, or used at transition temperature.

The possibility of scaling up the material for large production is also possible. The team says that since they are using techniques developed by the polymer industry, in future the process of making superconductors may be as easy as processing polymers.