A new superconducting material offers hope that the technology could operate at much higher temperatures, enabling the development of better electronic devices.

Researchers have discovered a material that can conduct electricity without resistance and can direct magnetic fields around the material. Unlike previous superconductors, the material can be made at temperatures and pressures that could be practical for everyday use.

"Superconductors are already used in some applications," physicist Harsh Mathur of Case Western Reserve University told Lifewire in an email interview. "For example, superconducting magnets are used in MRI, and the key hardware element in quantum computers (such as Google's famous Sycamore computer) is a superconducting circuit element called a transmon. The need to cool the circuits to close to absolute zero is a major bottleneck that prevents superconductors from being used more widely."

In the Nature paper, the researchers said they used a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride (NDLH), which becomes a superconductor at 69 degrees Fahrenheit and 10 kilobars (145,000 pounds per square inch, or psi) of pressure. While that pressure is still high, considering the pressure at sea level is about 15 psi, it is well within our current capabilities. Chip manufacturing, for example, uses materials held together by internal chemical forces that are even higher.