Ceramic Superconductor Room Temperature

The discovery of the high t c lanthanum copper oxide and yttrium barium copper oxide ceramic materials class of superconductors represented a milestone that greatly boosted optimism that a room temperature superconductor was a realistic goal although with this class of materials the quest seems to have stalled with the t c 140 c record.

Ceramic superconductor room temperature.

The ceramic materials used to make superconductors are a class of materials called perovskites. Hewat in encyclopedia of materials. This superconductor has a critical transition temperature around 90k well above liquid nitrogen s 77k. The first high temperature superconductors those that superconduct above 200 degrees celsius were discovered in the 1980s.

Physicists from the max planck institute for the structure and dynamics of matter have kept a piece of ceramic in a superconducting state disproving the widely held assumption that materials need to be cooled to temperatures of at least 140 degrees celsius to achieve superconductivity. The superconductor we will be experimenting with is an yttrium y barium ba and copper cu composition. Science and technology 2002. Chemical formula is yba2cu3o7.

By the late 1970s superconductivity was observed in several metallic compounds in particular nb based such as nbti nb 3 sn and nb 3 ge at temperatures that. Superconductivity was discovered by kamerlingh onnes in 1911 in a metal solid. These were made of yttrium barium copper oxide a ceramic material with a critical temperature of around 166 degrees c. Ever since researchers have attempted to observe superconductivity at increasing temperatures with the goal of finding a room temperature superconductor.

The advantage of neutron diffraction for locating oxygen is obvious from fig. There is great value and utility in answering how high temperature superconductors work because that may be the route to room temperature superconductivity. Ceramic superconductors are generally heavy metal oxides and neutron diffraction has long been superior for the precise location of light atoms such as hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of heavy atoms. Since about 1993 the highest temperature superconductor has been a ceramic material consisting of mercury barium calcium copper and oxygen hgba 2 ca 2 cu 3 o 8 δ with t c 133 138 k.

The latter experiment 138 k still awaits experimental confirmation however.