Joe Eck is a private researcher who has been working for many years on superconducting materials. Some researchers in Iran, Thailand and Columbia seem to have plagiarized some of Joe's earlier work in publishing into some peer reviewed journals. It does suggest that Joe's work is of high quality. I definitely think it would be worthwhile for others to follow up and try to replicate the work and purify samples. Joe has filed a provisional patent application for a room-temperature superconductor.
The hallmark of superconductivity is a sudden resistance drop to zero ohms and strong diamagnetism (the Meissner effect) near the same temperature. In numerous tests a small amount of the compound (Tl5Pb2)Ba2Mg2Cu9O17+ consistently produced sharp resistive transitions near 28.5 Celsius (see above graphics), and diamagnetic transitions also near 28.5C (below). The transitions were unambiguous, repeatable, and at ambient pressure, making this the first observation of true room-temperature superconductivity in a copper-oxide. Unfortunately, like the 18C superconductor discovered in March 2011, these transitions occurred in a noisy environment, suggesting the volume fraction is very low. As such, any plans for immediate commercialization will have to wait for a refining method to be developed.
We shall see. To read more, click here.