The race is on.

Though the pressures are still very high – about a thousand times higher than you’d experience at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench – they continue to race toward a goal of near-zero. It’s a race that’s gaining steam exponentially at UNLV as researchers gain a better understanding of the chemical relationship between the carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen that make up the material.

“Our knowledge of the relationship between carbon and sulfur is advancing rapidly, and we’re finding ratios that lead to remarkably different, and more efficient, responses than what was initially observed,” said Salamat, who directs UNLV’s NEXCL and contributed to the latest study. “To observe such different phenomena in a similar system just shows the richness of Mother Nature. There’s so much more to understand, and every new advancement brings us closer to the precipice of everyday superconducting devices.”