Superconductivity in alkali-metal-doped picene

Efforts to identify and develop new superconducting materials continue apace, motivated by both fundamental science and the prospects for application. For example, several new superconducting material systems have been developed in the recent past, including calcium-intercalated graphite compounds(1), boron-doped diamond(2) and-most prominently-iron arsenides such as LaO1-xFxFeAs (ref. 3). In the case of organic superconductors, however, no new material system with a high superconducting transition temperature (T-c) has been discovered in the past decade. Here we report that intercalating an alkali metal into picene, a wide-bandgap semiconducting solid hydrocarbon, produces metallic behaviour and superconductivity. Solid potassium-intercalated picene (K(x)picene) shows T-c values of 7K and 18 K, depending on the metal content. The drop of magnetization in Kxpicene solids at the transition temperature is sharp (<2 K), similar to the behaviour of Ca-intercalated graphite(1). The Tc of 18K is comparable to that of K-intercalated C-60 (ref. 4). This discovery of superconductivity in K(x)picene shows that organic hydrocarbons are promising candidates for improved T-c values.