The maximum Tc of conventional superconductors at ambient pressure

Kun Gao, Tiago F. T. Cerqueira, Antonio Sanna, Yue-Wen Fang, Đorđe Dangić, Ion Errea, Hai-Chen Wang, Silvana Botti and Miguel A. L. Marques ()
Additional contact information
Kun Gao: Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems of the Research Alliance Ruhr
Tiago F. T. Cerqueira: University of Coimbra
Antonio Sanna: Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik
Yue-Wen Fang: CSIC-UPV/EHU
Đorđe Dangić: CSIC-UPV/EHU
Ion Errea: CSIC-UPV/EHU
Hai-Chen Wang: Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems of the Research Alliance Ruhr
Silvana Botti: Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems of the Research Alliance Ruhr
Miguel A. L. Marques: Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems of the Research Alliance Ruhr

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The theoretical maximum critical temperature (Tc) for conventional superconductors at ambient pressure remains a fundamental question in condensed matter physics. Through analysis of electron-phonon calculations for over 20,000 metals, we critically examine this question. We find that while hydride metals can exhibit maximum phonon frequencies of more than 5000 K, the crucial logarithmic average frequency $${\omega }_{\log }$$ ω log rarely exceeds 1800 K. Our data reveals an inherent trade-off between $${\omega }_{\log }$$ ω log and the electron-phonon coupling constant λ, suggesting that the optimal Eliashberg function that maximizes Tc is unphysical. Based on our calculations, we identify Li2AgH6 and its sibling Li2AuH6 as theoretical materials that likely approach the practical limit for conventional superconductivity at ambient pressure. Analysis of thermodynamic stability indicates that compounds with higher predicted Tc values are increasingly unstable, making their synthesis challenging. While fundamental physical laws do not strictly limit Tc to low-temperatures, our analysis suggests that achieving room-temperature conventional superconductivity at ambient pressure is extremely unlikely.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63702-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-63702-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63702-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().