Ceramics As A Super Conductor

Chemical formula is yba2cu3o7.

Ceramics as a super conductor.

The first high temperature superconductor was discovered in 1986 by ibm researchers bednorz and müller 3 6 who were awarded the nobel prize in physics in 1987 for their important break through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials. Most high tc ceramics are layered structures with two dimensional copper oxygen sheets along which superconduction takes place. The ceramic materials used to make superconductors are a class of materials called perovskites. The superconductor we will be experimenting with is an yttrium y barium ba and copper cu composition.

The most significant new materials are bismuth based and thallium based. The discovery of high temperature above the temperature of liquid nitrogen ceramic superconductors has changed superconductivity from an interesting curiosity to a useable technology with particular applications in the medical field as a superconducting magnet in mri scanners. Many ceramic superconductors physically behave as superconductors of the second type. Ceramics are amongst the most electrically insulating materials known.

Yba 2 cu 3 o 7 x was the first ceramic superconductor discovered with t c greater than liquid nitrogen temperature. However discoveries in the late 20th century have also shown some ceramics to be the most electrically conducting. This superconductor has a critical transition temperature around 90k well above liquid nitrogen s 77k temperature. Conductive ceramics advanced industrial materials that owing to modifications in their structure serve as electrical conductors.

The best ceramic conductors are the so called high tc superconductors materials that lose their resistance at much higher critical temperatures than their metal alloy counterparts.