Benzene, the molecular formula is C6H6, whose derivatives are widely available around us such as dyes, plastic, perfumes, paints and other common materials.

" We want to find if this universal benzene (C6H6), a hybrid of the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon and a hydrogen-rich material, can have superconductivity like existing high-temperature superconductivity, and If it can, what are the relations between it and the existing ones reported ?" said ZHONG Guohua, a Professor from Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

To answer these questions, Prof. ZHONG Guohua and his colleagues have systematically investigated the crystal structure of C6H6, and its electronic, phononic characteristics, electron-phonon interactions. Then they have found that the pure C6H6 crystal is superconducting under high pressure upon 180 GPa, and the Tc (superconducting critical temperature) can reach to roughly 20 K at 195 GPa. They also pointed out that the superconductivity is mainly contributed by electrons and phonons from C atoms, comparing with electron-doped materials containing benzene, the pressure is an effective approach to improve their superconducting transition temperature.

Namely, they have found that benzene crystal is a new superconductor, and they have revealed the relations between this superconductivity and electronic/phononic characteristics, predicted the dependence of Tc on pressure, which is meaningful for re-understanding the organic materials which contains the benzene.

The paper “Superconductivity in solid benzene molecular crystal” was published on the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 2018.

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China, the Shenzhen Basic Research Grant, and the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund.