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Rare-earth barium copper oxide (also referred to as ReBCO) is a family of chemical compounds known for exhibiting 
The most famous of these is
Rare-earth barium copper oxide (also referred to as ReBCO) is a family of chemical compounds known for exhibiting high temperature superconductivity
High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previo ...
(HTS). ReBCO superconductors have the potential to sustain stronger magnetic fields than other superconductor materials.
Due to their stronger magnetic field and relatively high superconducting critical temperature, this materials are proposed for future use in technical applications. This includes magnetic confinement
Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach to generate thermonuclear fusion power that uses magnetic fields to confine fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Magnetic confinement is one of two major branches of fusion energy research, along with i ...
fusion reactor
Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices des ...
s such as the ARC reactor, allowing a more compact and potentially more economical construction, and superconducting magnets to use in future particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams.
Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...
s to come after the LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundre ...
at CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
which utilizes low-temperature superconductors.
The most famous of these is yttrium barium copper oxide
Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that display high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen ...
, YBa2Cu3O7−x (or Y123), the first superconductor found with a critical temperature above the boiling point
The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor.
The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding envir ...
of liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen—LN2—is nitrogen in a liquid state at low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, low viscosity liquid that is wide ...
. Its molar ratio
In chemistry, the mole fraction or molar fraction (''xi'' or ) is defined as unit of the amount of a constituent (expressed in moles), ''ni'', divided by the total amount of all constituents in a mixture (also expressed in moles), ''n''tot. This ex ...
is 1 to 2 to 3 for yttrium, barium, and copper and it has a unit cell
In geometry, biology, mineralogy and solid state physics, a unit cell is a repeating unit formed by the vectors spanning the points of a lattice. Despite its suggestive name, the unit cell (unlike a unit vector, for example) does not necessaril ...
consisting of subunits, which is the typical structure of perovskites
A perovskite is any material with a crystal structure following the formula ABX3, which was first discovered as the mineral called perovskite, which consists of calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3). The mineral was first discovered in the Ural mou ...
. In particular, the subunits are three, overlapping and containing an yttrium atom at the center of the middle one and a barium atom at the center of the remaining ones. Therefore, yttrium and barium are stacked according to the sequence a-Y-Ba along an axis conventionally denoted by ''c'', (the vertical direction in the figure on the right).
The resulting cell has an orthorhombic structure, unlike other superconducting cuprate
Cuprate loosely refers to a material that can be viewed as containing anionic copper complexes. Examples include tetrachloridocuprate ( uCl4sup>2−), the superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, and the organocuprates (e.g., dimethylcuprate u(CH3)2sup>∠...
s which generally have a tetragonal structure. All the corner sites of the unit cell are occupied by copper, which has two different coordinates, Cu(1) and Cu(2), with respect to oxygen. There are four possible crystallographic sites for oxygen: O(1), O(2), O(3), and O(4).
Any rare-earth element
The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silve ...
can be used in a ReBCO; popular choices include yttrium
Yttrium is a chemical element with the symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost always found in com ...
(YBCO
Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that display high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen ...
), lanthanum
Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57. It is a soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that tarnishes slowly when exposed to air. It is the eponym of the lanthanide series, a group of 15 similar elements between lantha ...
( LBCO), samarium
Samarium is a chemical element with symbol Sm and atomic number 62. It is a moderately hard silvery metal that slowly oxidizes in air. Being a typical member of the lanthanide series, samarium usually has the oxidation state +3. Compounds of samar ...
(Sm123), neodymium
Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth metals. It is a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarnishes i ...
(Nd123 and Nd422), gadolinium
Gadolinium is a chemical element with the symbol Gd and atomic number 64. Gadolinium is a silvery-white metal when oxidation is removed. It is only slightly malleable and is a ductile rare-earth element. Gadolinium reacts with atmospheric oxygen ...
(Gd123) and europium
Europium is a chemical element with the symbol Eu and atomic number 63. Europium is the most reactive lanthanide by far, having to be stored under an inert fluid to protect it from atmospheric oxygen or moisture. Europium is also the softest lanth ...
(Eu123), where the numbers among parenthesis indicate the molar ratio
In chemistry, the mole fraction or molar fraction (''xi'' or ) is defined as unit of the amount of a constituent (expressed in moles), ''ni'', divided by the total amount of all constituents in a mixture (also expressed in moles), ''n''tot. This ex ...
among rare-earth, barium and copper.
Because these kind of materials are brittle it was difficult to create wires from them. After 2010 industrial manufacturers started to produce tapes, with different layers encapsulating the ReBCO material and opening the way to commercial uses.
In September 2021 Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is an American company founded in 2018 aiming to build a compact fusion power plant based on the ARC tokamak power plant concept. The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a spin-off of the Massa ...
(CFS) created a test magnet with ReBCO wires in which flowed a current of 40,000 ampere
The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp,SI supports only the use of symbols and deprecates the use of abbreviations for units. is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to elect ...
s, with a magnetic field of 20 tesla at 20 K.
See also
*Cuprate superconductor
Cuprate superconductors are a family of high-temperature superconducting materials made of layers of copper oxides (CuO2) alternating with layers of other metal oxides, which act as charge reservoirs. At ambient pressure, cuprate superconductors ...
* List of superconductors
The table below shows some of the parameters of common superconductors. X:Y means material X doped with element Y, ''T''C is the highest reported transition temperature in kelvins and ''H''C is a critical magnetic field in tesla. "BCS" means ...
References
{{reflist Barium compounds Copper compounds High-temperature superconductors Oxides