According to a new issue of Nature Communications magazine, researchers at Cornell University in the United States have developed a "one-step" 3D printing method to produce record breaking superconductors. Among them, the printed niobium nitride superconductor, under the action of the nanoporous structure, has its upper critical magnetic field increased to 40-50 Tesla, setting a record for the highest magnetic field of the compound to date. This breakthrough simplifies traditional complex processes and is expected to drive development in various fields, from medical imaging magnets to quantum devices. As early as 2016, the team first utilized block copolymers to achieve self-assembled superconductors. These flexible chain like molecules can spontaneously arrange into ordered and repetitive nanoscale structures. By 2021, the team has demonstrated that soft material methods can produce superconductors with performance comparable to traditional methods. This new approach takes a bigger step forward. The team used an "ink" composed of block copolymers and inorganic nanoparticles to achieve self-assembly during the 3D printing process, which was then transformed into a porous crystal superconductor through heat treatment. This "one-step" process eliminates the traditional methods of multiple synthesis, powder preparation, addition of binders, and multiple rounds of heating, greatly improving efficiency. Through this process, the team can directly prepare superconducting materials with triple structural levels. At the atomic scale, atoms are arranged in a lattice; At the mesoscale, the self-assembly of block copolymers forms ordered structures; At the macro scale, 3D printing can form complex shapes such as coils and spirals to meet different application needs. The most notable achievement of this study comes from the printing experiment of niobium nitride superconductors. Due to the porous nature of the nanostructure, the upper critical magnetic field of this 3D printed superconductor reaches 40-50 Tesla, creating the highest "confinement effect induction value" for this type of compound superconductor. This characteristic is crucial for strong superconducting magnets, such as magnetic resonance imaging devices. They also found that the superconducting properties of materials can be directly correlated with design parameters such as polymer molecular weight, providing a new tool for performance prediction. The team plans to extend this method to other superconducting materials such as titanium nitride and explore complex 3D geometric structures that are difficult to achieve with traditional methods. The record breaking specific surface area brought by porous architecture also opens up new ideas for researching quantum materials and developing next-generation devices. (New Society)