EXCHESS

The project's aim is to discover new practically-usable conventional superconductors using state-of-the-art ab initio techniques. 

Currently, the widespread adoption of superconducting technologies in sectors like medical imaging, energy transport and storage, is limited by the prohibitive cooling costs. 

Excluding unconventional superconductors, which have high manufacturing costs and flux pinning issues, the critical temperatures (Tc) of most superconductors are so low to require hydrogen or helium cooling. Currently, the commercial material with the highest Tc (40 K) is MgB2, a phonon-mediated superconductor with a favourable combination of light atoms and metallic covalent bonds. 

Comparable or higher Tc’s were predicted in other light-element compounds. 

In this project we will search for new light-element superconductors at near-ambient pressure which may equal or surpass MgB2. 

The team will perform high-throughput Tc calculations of around 4500 materials, expanding the range of known light element compounds reported in open-access databases with evolutionary searches of metastable allotropes. 

The group has been at the forefront of the computational prediction of new superconductors with a focus on superhydrides. Access to EuroHPC resources will allow us to extend our range of study to the whole range of light-element compounds, which is crucial to find practically-usable materials.