A realistic pathway toward an ambient-pressure, room-temperature superconductor: design, theory, and experimentally-tractable synthesis of a "moiré-clathrate" hydrogen-rich heterostructure

Abstract

I propose a physically realistic, experimentally tractable material architecture that—by combining three independently validated strategies from recent literature—could plausibly host superconductivity at or near room temperature (≈300 K) at ambient pressure. The architecture (which I call a moiré-clathrate heterostructure) integrates (1) flat-band, strongly correlated physics produced by moiré engineering of two-dimensional layers (twisted bilayer graphene and related moiré systems), (2) hydrogen-derived, high-frequency phonon modes and strong electron-phonon coupling localized in nanoscale hydrogen-rich clathrate units (chemical precompression / superhydride concepts), and (3) controlled charge transfer / chemical precompression from adjacent oxide/rare-earth layers (nickelate / oxide reservoir layers) to tune carrier density and stabilize hydrogen units at low pressure. I lay out the theoretical motivation, a concrete materials recipe using current synthesis tools (CVD, van-der-Waals stacking, MBE, electrochemical intercalation, and clathrate encapsulation routes), measurable experimental signatures, and ab-initio modeling steps required to evaluate feasibility. The proposal builds on high-Tc hydride results, moiré superconductivity, and clathrate hydride chemistry; it highlights critical technical challenges (hydrogen stabilization at ambient pressure, controlled hybridization, disorder management) and offers mitigation strategies. This document is intended as a practical research roadmap rather than a claim of immediate success.

Abstract of "A realistic pathway toward an ambient-pressure, room-temperature superconductor: design, theory, and experimentally-tractable synthesis of a "moiré-clathrate" hydrogen-rich heterostructure" by Giustino Travaglini, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18506198, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.