In the science fiction film "Avatar", the magical room temperature superconducting 

ore "Unobtanium" uses a powerful magnetic field near the mother tree to suspend Mount 

Hallelujah. In reality, research on room temperature superconductivity is also suspected of 

achieving a disruptive breakthrough. Recently, physicist Ranga Dias and his team announced 

that they have developed a material that exhibits superconductivity at room temperature 

and relatively low pressure conditions: a ternary compound composed of lutetium nitrogen 

hydrogen (Lu-N-H). Whether room temperature superconductivity can spark a new round of 

energy revolution remains to be verified, but the release of this research achievement once 

again ushers in a high light era for superconducting materials.

        Superconductivity, also known as superconductivity, refers to the phenomenon where 

the resistance is equal to zero under certain conditions and the current can flow losslessly 

between them. Materials with this characteristic are called superconducting materials or 

superconductors. Superconducting materials possess zero resistance, complete diamagnetism, 

and quantum tunneling effects that conventional materials do not possess. They have unique 

application advantages in many fields such as medical equipment, energy, transportation, 

large science engineering (CFETR, heavy ion accelerators), and national defense.

       From the perspective of the implementation path of superconducting materials, the 

current global technological directions include ultra-high temperature and ultra-high pressure. 

The "room temperature superconductivity" technology has achieved superconductivity under 

laboratory conditions at a pressure of 20 ℃ and 10000 standard atmospheres. However, it is 

difficult to create a pressure environment of 10000 atmospheres on a large scale. Therefore, 

at this stage, using ultra-low temperature is the only means to commercialize superconductivity. 

Superconductors with a critical temperature below the liquid helium temperature range are 

called low-temperature superconducting materials, and vice versa, high-temperature 

superconducting materials.

1. Development of environment

Relevant national departments have successively introduced favorable policies, ushering in 

new opportunities for the development of superconducting materials in China

        As early as 2006, superconducting materials were included in the "Superconducting 

Materials and Technology Special Project" of the national "863" plan, and comprehensive 

research and development were carried out in areas such as power applications, strong 

magnet applications, and weak current applications. In recent years, national policies have 

been intensively implemented around the top-level design of superconducting materials, 

encouraging and regulating the healthy and orderly development of the industry. Made in 

China 2025 lists superconducting materials as one of the key development projects in 

cutting-edge disruptive new materials. The 13th Five Year Plan for the Development of National 

Strategic Emerging Industries proposes to actively develop new superconducting materials, 

participate in the international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor plan, continuously 

improve national major scientific and technological infrastructure such as fully superconducting 

Tokamak fusion experimental devices, and promote the development and innovation of 

superconducting materials; The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National 

Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry 

of Finance jointly issued the "Guidelines for the Development of the New Materials Industry", 

proposing to strengthen basic research and engineering technology research on superconducting 

materials, achieve industrial applications in fields such as power transmission and medical devices, 

and clarify the key development direction and incremental market sources of superconducting 

materials in China; In December 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the 

Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly released the 

"14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Raw Materials Industry" as a guiding document, 

proposing forward layout actions for the development of superconducting materials, strengthening 

support and guidance in application fields, and clarifying the positioning of superconducting 

materials in modern industries.

China's basic research capacity for superconducting materials continues to break through, 

but there is still a gap between large-scale preparation and international level

        With the continuous support of national key research and development plans, China 

has made breakthroughs in key technologies in various aspects of superconducting materials. 

On the one hand, China is at an international advanced level in basic research on 

superconducting materials, setting a world record for the critical current density of 

low-temperature superconducting materials, and being the first to discover YBCO 

high-temperature superconducting materials and new iron-based superconducting materials, 

leading the development direction of international superconducting materials; On the other 

hand, as high-temperature superconducting materials begin to enter the commercialization 

stage, China's technology in some high-temperature superconducting application layers is 

approaching or reaching international advanced levels. For example, the world's first 35 kV 

kilometer level superconducting cable has been put into operation in Shanghai, completing 

the task of supplying superconducting wires for the International Thermonuclear Fusion 

Reactor (ITER) program, industrialization of high-performance YBCO coated conductors, 

hanging of high-voltage superconducting current limiters, implementation and application of 

accelerators for cancer treatment, and dual use of superconducting weak current technology 

for military and civilian purposes. At the same time, due to the relatively lagging development 

of the industrial chain and insufficient integration of industry, academia, research and application, 

there is still a gap between the overall level of research and development of superconducting 

materials and technology in China and the international level, such as the large-scale preparation 

of practical superconducting materials and superconducting application layer technology in 

high-end medical equipment, analytical instruments, scientific research equipment, and other fields.

2. Development status

Industrial chain structure

        The upstream raw materials of the industrial chain are composed of metal elements such as 

niobium, titanium, yttrium, barium, bismuth, strontium, boron, etc. The midstream mainly includes 

two types of low-temperature superconducting materials (NbTi, Nb3Sn) and four types of 

high-temperature superconducting materials (bismuth series, yttrium series, MgB2, iron-based 

superconducting materials), which are the core links of the industrial chain and provide an application 

foundation for downstream power transmission, medical devices, electronic communication, 

national defense and military, scientific research, and other scenarios.

(1) Upstream: The upstream of the industrial chain consists of raw materials, with titanium, niobium, 

and tin as the main low-temperature superconducting raw materials, and yttrium, barium, bismuth, 

strontium, and boron as the main high-temperature superconducting raw materials.

(2) Mid stream: Superconducting materials can be divided into low-temperature superconducting 

materials and high-temperature superconducting materials according to critical temperatures. 

Currently, low-temperature superconducting materials and their applications account for over 90% 

of the total superconducting market in China, and high-temperature superconducting materials are 

still in the early stages of industrialization. The commercialized low-temperature superconducting 

wires are mainly NbTi and Nb3Sn superconducting wires. Among them, NbTi has good processing 

plasticity and is mainly used in fields such as MRI, MCZ, NMR, nuclear fusion experimental reactors, 

accelerators, etc; Nb3Sn is a brittle material mainly used in fields such as NMR and nuclear fusion 

experimental reactors. High temperature superconducting materials with practical value mainly 

include bismuth based (BSCCO), yttrium based (YBCO), magnesium diboride (MgB2) superconducting 

materials, and iron based superconducting materials. There are three preparation methods: solid 

phase method, liquid phase method, and gas phase method. High temperature superconducting 

materials have two major advantages: low usage cost and few application restrictions. At present, 

they have achieved preliminary applications in fields such as induction heating and power transmission. 

The feasibility of their application in the field of controllable nuclear fusion has been confirmed, and 

they are expected to replace low-temperature superconducting materials in more fields in the future.

(3) Downstream: The zero resistance, complete diamagnetism, and quantum tunneling effects of 

superconducting materials distinguish them from ordinary materials and are widely used in various 

fields such as power transmission, medical devices, electronic communication, national defense 

and military, and scientific research. For example, based on the zero resistance property and 

complete diamagnetism of superconducting materials, loading large currents into them can achieve 

disruptive technologies such as high current transport, strong magnetic fields, and magnetic levitation; 

Based on the quantum tunneling effect, superconductivity can be applied to quantum computing 

and weak magnetic field detection, and can be used to make a series of precision measurement 

instruments, radiation detectors, microwave generators, logic components, etc. In "Made in China 

2025", it was mentioned that computer logic and storage components made using quantum 

tunneling effects have a power consumption of only one quarter of that of high-performance 

integrated circuits, but their computing speed can reach more than 10 times.

Market size: "Market+Technology" drives stable industrial growth, with a global market size of 

6.8 billion euros

        With the deepening integration of market demand and related technologies, the global 

superconducting material market has seen steady growth in size. On the one hand, the potential 

of both supply and demand for low-temperature superconducting materials continues to be

 released, and while batch processing technology continues to develop, terminal applications such 

as MRI, MCZ, accelerators, and controlled thermonuclear fusion are experiencing leapfrog growth; 

On the other hand, with countries around the world continuously exploring the micro mechanisms 

of high-temperature superconductivity, accelerating the research and development of high-temperature 

superconductive materials, and the development of highly reliable and efficient refrigeration systems, 

high-temperature superconductive materials have achieved preliminary large-scale applications in 

multiple superconducting electronic fields. According to Conectus data, the global superconducting 

product market has grown from 5.19 billion euros in 2012 to 6.8 billion euros in 2022.

3. Development prospects

Superconducting materials promote the upgrading of the energy storage industry, improve the 

stability and quality of power systems

        With the rapid progress of ultra-high voltage and long-distance transmission technology in 

the power grid, as well as the construction of high energy consuming infrastructure such as 5G, 

the demand for electricity is further driven. In the context of dual carbon, the proportion of 

renewable energy such as wind power and photovoltaic connected to the grid and distributed 

power generation is gradually increasing, bringing many stability and grid quality issues to the 

power system. Energy storage devices can effectively solve the contradiction between intermittent 

supply of new energy and the sustainability of user electricity demand, achieve peak shaving and 

frequency regulation of the power system, smooth user demand, and improve energy utilization. 

In recent years, the importance of energy storage devices has become increasingly prominent.

        In the current situation where multiple technological routes coexist in the energy storage 

industry, superconducting energy storage devices are based on the characteristics of superconducting 

coils operating in a superconducting state without DC Joule loss, which can achieve high energy 

density and long-term lossless energy storage. At the same time, by controlling the energy exchange 

between the SMES converter and the power grid, the power exchange between the system and 

superconducting magnets can be efficiently regulated. Compared with other energy storage devices, 

it has advantages such as high energy storage, good conversion efficiency, fast response speed, and

flexible application. It has significant effects in peak load regulation and valley filling of the power 

system, and in curbing low-frequency oscillations in the power grid. In the future, it is expected to 

play an irreplaceable role in solving the dynamic stability problem of the power system, improving 

the quality of electricity consumption, and improving the reliability of electricity.

High throughput screening+machine learning to further explore high-temperature and even room 

temperature and atmospheric pressure superconducting materials

        The pain point that the critical temperature is much lower than room temperature seriously 

restricts the engineering application of superconducting materials. However, in recent years, 

superconducting materials with higher critical temperatures have emerged with experimental 

research. Looking ahead, high-throughput screening and machine learning technologies are 

expected to predict, screen, and even design new high-temperature and even ambient temperature 

and pressure superconductors based on thousands of possible combinations of rare earth metals, 

nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon.

        On the one hand, the high-throughput screening method can simultaneously filter thousands 

of possible combinations of superconducting materials in a short period of time, with the 

advantages of high automation, parallelism, and scalability, greatly improving the search efficiency 

of candidate high-temperature superconducting materials, thereby guiding the calculation and 

experimental research of new high-temperature superconductors; On the other hand, with more 

complex algorithms bringing higher accuracy, machine learning provides a series of tools and 

methods for optimizing exploration and decision-making processes using high-quality data. It has 

been applied in the research and design of numerous emerging materials, including metal organic 

framework materials, soft materials, biological materials, lithium-ion battery materials, thermoelectric 

materials, catalytic materials, carbon materials, etc. At a time when the mechanism of high-temperature 

superconductivity is not fully understood, using machine learning to explore the corresponding 

relationship between the microscopic and macroscopic properties of materials is expected to help 

scientists make significant breakthroughs in exploring higher critical temperatures of superconducting 

materials.