Nickel Oxide Compound for High-Temperature Superconductors

Superconducting materials are technologically important because electricity flows through them without resistance. Only low-temperature superconductivity seemed possible before 1986, but materials that superconduct at low temperatures are impractical because they must first be cooled to hundreds of degrees below zero. In 1986, discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxide compounds, called cuprates, engendered new technological potential for the phenomenon.