SILVERLAND: Unique silver route to superconducting cuprate analogs

Project is highly interdisciplinary and is conducted in broad international cooperation. Four world-class experts from Slovenia, Italy, USA and Singapore are official partners of Polish scientists. Moreover, many more researchers from China, Great Britain, Switzerland, Georgia, Slovak Rep., Italy, USA and Poland are participating in the project. So called silver difluoride (AgF2) is the main precursor material; it will undergo numerous modifications using advanced crystal engineering, as well as will constitute the basis for a number of unprecedented chemical stoichiometries. We will investigate the structure of materials (i.e. the way atoms are arranged in the solids), the nature of chemical bonds, as well as superconducting behaviour. Substantial support in the project is offered by the state-of-the-art theoretical calculations using supercomputers at ICM, The University of Warsaw; the calculations and modeling will give us better understanding of the manufactured samples.

Our ambitious goal is to generate new better superconductors, which could be used without necessity of cooling them at all – this alone constitutes a nontrivial scientific goal and every step counts which we can make towards that dream. We would also like to preserve the lead position of the Warsaw team in the research on fluoroargentates, which we gained during nearly 2 decades of hard work on many chemical systems. Several young scientists will be trained to take the lead in the future. In a more distant perspective, one may think of important consequences for the country and the society. According to the US Geological Survey, Poland has the largest documented silver ore deposits in the world. Perhaps, based on the basic research contained in this project, new interesting applications could be found for this valuable semi-precious metal, while benefiting our society and civilization.