Fusionfire - 21-1-2012 at 07:42
Both of these superconductors work at temperatures above the BP of liquid nitrogen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YBCO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSCCO
Has anyone been able to make them as an amateur chemist at home? How did you do it and what were the results?
phlogiston - 21-1-2012 at 14:53
No idea, but this looks like a nice, spectacular synthesis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JLWeYQFA2I
Fusionfire - 22-1-2012 at 05:29
Very nice. When I come back from holidays I'd like to try that 
elementcollector1 - 26-3-2014 at 06:26
What were the reactants? The video doesn't say, but if I had to guess it would be barium carbonate, yttrium oxide and copper oxide.
Steam - 26-3-2014 at 06:42
YBCO can be made by heating the metal carbonates at temperatures between 726.85- 1030 C
4BaCO3 + Y2(CO3)3 + 6CuCO3 + Excess O2 --> 2YBa2Cu3O7 + 13CO2
Suppose this could be done in a furnace
Otherwise I found this article using the metal oxides to make YBCO
http://scitech.au.dk/fileadmin/site_files/formidling/Superle...
[Edited on 26-3-2014 by Steam]
elementcollector1 - 2-4-2014 at 11:39
Can't say I enjoy that method, as I have no pressure devices or high-temperature devices.
Where, then, would be a cheap place to buy YBCO disks?
Cheapest I've seen was $50 per disk, here: http://shop.can-superconductors.com/demonstration-kits/13-dk...
Also found this, but I get the strangest feeling they're selling me the powder, and I don't think I can sinter it without removing the properties: http://www.americanelements.com/ybacuo.html
Also, don't know the price for that last one.
How do universities get their hands on these materials? They can't seriously all be manufacturing their own, that's pre-Industrial Revolution style
thinking.
LabGuy - 11-1-2018 at 06:43
this is how YBCO can be made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjuUMVm3hZ8
2 step process gives much better results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBDWn1ltZDI