Superconductivity above 30 K Achieved in Dense Scandium

Superconductivity is one of most intriguing quantum phenomena,and the quest for elemental superconductors with high critical temperature(T_(c))is of great scientific significance due to their relatively simple material composition and the underlying mechanism.Here we report the experimental discovery of densely compressed scandium(Sc)becoming the first elemental superconductor with T_(c)breaking into 30 K range,which is comparable to the T_(c)values of the classic La-Ba-Cu-O or LaFeAsO superconductors.Our results show that T_(c)^(onset)of Sc increases from~3K at around 43GPa to~32K at about 283GPa(T_(c)^(zero)~31 K),which is well above liquid neon temperature.Interestingly,measured T_(c)shows no sign of saturation up to the maximum pressure achieved in our experiments,indicating that T_(c)may be even higher upon further compression.