https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181025103335.htm

Superconducting materials which enable long-distance electricity transmission without energy loss in the absence of electrical resistance?are considered to be a key technology in solving environmental and energy issues. The conventional approach by researchers searching for new superconducting materials or other materials has been to rely on published information on material properties, such as crystalline structures and valence numbers, and their own experience and intuition. However, this approach is time-consuming, costly and very difficult because it requires extensive and exhaustive synthesis of related materials. As such, demand has been high for the development of new methods enabling more efficient exploration of new materials with desirable properties.

This joint research team took advantage of the AtomWork database, which contains more than 100,000 pieces of data on inorganic crystal structures. The team first selected approximately 1,500 candidate material groups whose electronic states could be determined through calculation. The team then narrowed this list to 27 materials with desirable superconducting properties by actually performing electronic state calculations. From these 27, two materials?SnBi2Se4 and PbBi2Te4?were ultimately chosen because they were relatively easy to synthesize.