New superconductor

1993/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak
• Fisika

An international team of scientists has shown a new superrconductor with mercury easy to get. This international group has recalled that the highest transition temperature achieved so far has been -148ºC.

The superconductor now obtained loses the electrical resistance below -179°C and is made of copper oxide, including layers of mercury oxide and barium oxide. Its current structure is similar to the superconductor with higher transition temperature. The differences are, on the one hand, the reduction of copper oxide layers and on the other, the substitution of thallium by mercury.

Massimo Marezio, Murray Hill and others mixed the barium, copper oxide and mercury oxide and burned the mixture for five hours at 800ºC. Marezio states that by changing the amount of mercury and the amount of copper oxide layers, it will be possible to break the transition temperature record.