Historic January 1987: YBCO superconductors discovered and Super Bowl XXI
This timeline of discovery of superconducting materials shows how dramatic the discovery of high-Tc YBCO was. Credit: Wikipedia.
Do you recall where you were the weekend before the Super Bowl in 1987? Me neither. No matter, let’s play some Jeopardy, shall we?
Me: “Alex, I’ll take Super Bowl Weekends for $100.”
Alex: “The answer is YBCO.”
Me: “What is the abbreviated formula for the first high-temperature superconductor?”
Alex: “That is correct. The next answer is January 29, 1987.”
Me: “When were high-temperature superconductors discovered?”
Alex: “That’s right! Next answer: Jim Ashburn.”
Me: “Who was the graduate student that discovered high-temperature superconductors?”
Alex: “Right again! Next answer: M.K. Wu, University of Alabama in Hunstville.”
Me: “Who was Ashburn’s supervising professor and at what university did he work?”
Alex: “Right again! Next answer: Phil Simms.”
Me: “Ummmmm - Who was Wu’s postdoc?”
Alex: “No, so sorry. Phil Simms was the winning quarterback of Super Bowl XXI, leading the NY Giants to a 39-20 win over the Denver Broncos.”
If you were part of the ceramic science or physics world in 1987, you will recall it was a heady time. This new material rocked the world of solid state physics, and it was thought that an oxide material would be a disruptive technology for electricity transmission and other applications. In the 25 years since its discovery, we’ve seen that high Tc superconductor applications are not so easy to deploy, but progress is underway.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the historic discovery, the UAHuntsville unveiled a plaque in a recent ceremony.
A story on the university’s website recounts the events and thinking that led to Ashburn’s discovery. A physics graduate student at the time, Ashburn knew he was onto something that could be really big. With a good understanding of fundamental principles, especially the Periodic Table of the Elements, some coaching from a friend studying ceramic engineering, two textbooks and some fortunate bad luck, he formulated the first YBCO and demonstrated superconductivity at 93 K. (The story refers to one of the textbooks as “The Ceramic Bible,” which, presumably, is Introduction to Ceramics, by Kingery, Bowen and Uhlmann.)
Jim Ashburn and the new historic marker at UA Huntsville. Credit UA Huntsville.
The breakthrough that led Ashburn to the right formulation was the idea of “volume matching,” where atoms are substituted into a crystal lattice with compensations for their size. He says in the story, “I was learning that you have to put in things that were the right size with the right charge. It was basic crystal chemistry.” Knowing he wanted to try yttrium in the crystal, Ashburn turned to barium to get the required volume matching.
A little bit of fortunate bad luck followed. The usual furnace was unavailable for firing the compound, so Ashburn had to use the lab’s other furnace, which had a maximum temperature of 1,000°C, whereas the preferred furnace had a maximum firing temperature of 1,500°C. Later research would show that YBCO has a narrow processing sweet spot and melts at higher temperatures and solidifies into two separate compounds.
Ashburn has become an unofficial, self-appointed curator of the history of the discovery of high-temperature superconductors, however, he did not pursue a career in the field. He says, “My main interest is designing algorithms. I like to model things with math. That’s what I did then. It’s my job and it’s my happy place.”
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Ceramics and glass business news of the week
Here is what we are hearing:
Spanish ceramic tile manufacturers are, once again, the largest presence at the trade fair
February 7-10 are the dates for the 30th edition of the International Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Equipment Fair, CEVISAMA at the Feria Valencia centre. The fair is already an international point of reference for the industry involved in coverings for interiors. Spain’s ceramic tile sector is once again the largest presence at the event, with a large number of ASCER member companies showcasing their products and latest developments.
North American tile industry establishes product sustainability certification program
The Tile Council of North America is pleased to announce the establishment of “Green Squared,” the world’s first consensus-based sustainability standard and certification program developed exclusively for tiles and tile installation materials. ”With the recent approval of ANSI A138.1, the standard upon which the Green Squared certification program is based, our industry now has a means by which to define and certify the environmental and social sustainability attributes of tiles and related installation materials,” remarked Bill Griese, TCNA standards development and Green Initiative manager.
Streaming continuous data at up to 96 MSamples per second
More and more applications require high sampling rates, but due to computer processing and bus limitations, in the past, special AD cards with large on board memories had to be used. And, with these ‘scope-like’ cards, only triggered blocks of data could be captured, so if the trigger was not set correctly the event could be lost forever. All Dewetron instruments are able to acquire 5GB per minute continuously, and dedicated Dewetron transient systems can capture up to 11GB per minute, where only the hard disk drive size is the limitation of your recording length.
Kyocera introduces new Megacoat cermet cutting tools in grade PV7025 for general machining of steel
Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corporation’s Cutting Tool Division has introduced its new PV7025 PVD-coated cermet grade of indexable cutting tool inserts for general machining of steel. Featuring Kyocera’s new proprietary Megacoat PVD* coating technology, PV7025 offers extraordinary wear resistance and heat resistance, providing superior durability in high-speed machining. When combined with a super micrograin cermet substrate, the result is an exceptional cutting tool material for steel machining.
ECN grants Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles license on HybSi membrane technology
Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles, as one of the market leaders in inorganic membranes, has obtained a license for the commercialization of the HybSi membrane technology from ECN. The HybSi nanosieve allows the purification of various industrial solvents at a reduced cost and at an enhanced efficiency. It further combines an outstanding performance with unprecedented long term stability. Important fields of application can be found in the production of bio-fuels and in the separation of azeotropic mixtures. The HybSi membrane technology was originally developed by ECN, in collaboration with the Universities of Twente and Amsterdam.
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Video of the week: Cyrus Wadia outlines Materials Genome Initiative
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The Materials Genome Initiative is a multi-stakeholder effort to develop an infrastructure that will accelerate materials discovery and deployment. President Barack Obama unveiled the MGI in July 2011 as a critical enabling element of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership program.
The goal of the MGI is to support the creation of new computational tools, software and methods for materials characterization, plus foster the creation of open standards and databases that would make the development of advanced materials occur faster, with less expense and more predictability.
Because of the far-reaching impact the MGI will have on the materials science and engineering community — and the professional societies that support this work — ACerS’ Senior Editor Eileen De Guire interviewed a representative of the Obama administration, Cyrus Wadia, to discuss the administration’s vision of the MGI effort. Wadia is the assistant director for Clean Energy & Materials R&D in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in Washington, DC.
This interview was conducted Oct. 17, 2011, at the Materials Science & Technology 2011 Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
Video length: 6 minutes.
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Previews from the Journal of the American Ceramic Society
New papers that have been accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society are posted to “Early View” on the Wiley website and can be read even before the issue is printed. Below are summaries of selected papers currently available via Early View.
All members of The American Ceramic Society receive free online access to the Journal, which is searchable back to 1918. To access any of the ACerS journals, or to become a member, visit www.ceramics.org.
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Determination of the Solubility of Tin in Indium Oxide Using In Situ and Ex Situ X-ray Diffraction This team of researchers from the United States and France presents a novel approach to determine the thermodynamic solubility of tin in indium oxide via exsolution from tin-overdoped nano-ITO powders using high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffractiometry. The team reports structural results, including compositional phase analysis, atomic positions and lattice parameters. It also reports experimental complications that can lead to incorrect tin solubility values. Image: Rietveld refinement of X-ray synchrotron diffraction data on sample 28 after heating to 1000°C for 1163 h. Credit: JACerS; Wiley. |
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Synthesis and Characterization of Rutile Nanocrystals Prepared in Aqueous Media at Low Temperature These Australian researchers synthesized rutile powder using a sol-gel process and Tyzor TE precursor in an aqueous solution at 40°C-50°C and characterized the microstructural evolution using several techniques. They report that the resulting powder was phase-pure rutile with a surface area of 144.7 square meters per gram, an average pore size of 24.9 nanometers and a pore volume of 0.66 cubic centimeters per gram. They also propose a reaction mechanism for the preferential evolution of rutile over amorphous or anatase polymorphs. Image: TEM images of the rutile powder: (a) low magnification image showing uniform morphology; (b) higher magnification image. Credit: JACerS; Wiley. |
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Damage Development in Confined Borosilicate and Soda-Lime Glasses This team of researchers from the Southwest Research Institute in Texas used borosilicate (Borofloat® 33) and soda-lime (Starphire®) glass to investigate the flow and failure behavior caused by compressive loading with confinement in order to study the damage process that occurs during projectile impact/penetration into transparent armor. The team proposes a damage mechanism. Image: Removal of the confining sleeve/holder was necessary to view in-situ damage following compression testing of: (a) Confined sleeve specimen-end view, (b) Triaxial compression specimen-lengthwise view. Credit: JACerS; Wiley. |
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Enhancement of Photoluminescence and Color Purity of CaTiO3:Eu Phosphor by Li Doping This Taiwan National Cheng Kung University research team synthesized red phosphors of Ca1-3/2xEuxLixTiO3 and Ca1-2xEuxLixTiO3 (0 < x ≤ 0.3) with high color purity using a solid-state method. The team reports that color coordinates approach the ideal red chromaticity values with increasing Eu3+ and Li+ contents. Image: SEM images of (a) Ca1-3/2xEuxTiO3 and (b) Ca1-2xEuxLixTiO3 (x = 0.15). Credit: JACerS; Wiley. |
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CuInS2/N3 Co-Sensitized ZnO Nanorods with Improved Photovoltaic Properties for Solar Cells These researchers from China’s Tianjin Institute of Urban Construction used a solution reaction and ZnO nanorod arrays to synthesize ZnO/CuInS2 arrays. N3 dye was sequentially assembled on the arrays to construct a cascading cosensitized nanomaterial for use as a photoanode of a solar cell. The researchers report a 24.8 percent enhanced efficiency compared with material single sensitized by N3 because of abundant light harvesting, higher chemical instability in acid dye, fast injection and transmission velocity, and the slowdown recombination of photo-excited electrons. Image: SEM image (a) and XRD pattern (b) of ZnO/CuInS2 core/shell nanorods. Credit: JACerS; Wiley. |
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Processing and Properties of Textured Potassium Strontium Niobate (KSr2Nb5O15) Ceramic Fibers-Texture Development These researchers from Turkey fabricated highly textured KSr2Nb2O15 fibers using an alginate gelation method and templated grain growth using acicular template particles prepared by molten salt synthesis. They report that they obtained a maximum degree of orientation of 0.95 (measured by Lotgering factor) and a grain orientation distribution 0.28 (measured by rocking curve analysis). Image: Schematic depiction of the fiber drawing, template alignment, and gelation processes in the alginate gelation method. Credit: JACerS; Wiley. |
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Animation: Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry
Animation showing how time of flight secondary ion spectrometry works. Credit: ION-TOF, GmbH
Surfaces are of critical importance in materials systems and devices. One very powerful tool for the analysis of surface and subsurface chemistry is time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, which offers ppm or better sensitivity, less than 1 nanometer surface specificity, the ability to collect rapidly a full mass spectrum at every volume element and the ability to collect 2D images at every depth in a depth profile measurement.
The January/February 2012 issue of the Bulletin has an article on TOF-SIMS that shows how the technique can provide key surface information about materials and the wealth of information TOF-SIMS data sets provide.
The author, Vincent Smentkowski, is a surface chemist/analyst at the General Electric Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y, and for the past nine years, his work has focused on TOF-SIMS characterization of materials.
Over the last decade, improvements in the instrumentation allow for detection of all elements, including hydrogen, sensitivity in the ppb range under certain conditions and the ability to probe surfaces at nanoscale depths.
In an email, Smentkowski said, “I routinely find unexpected species/contaminants in the samples I analyze by TOF-SIMS. An important aspect of my work involves the use of multivariate statistical analysis tools in order to perform a rapid, unbiased, and complete analysis of the full TOF-SIMS data sets. MVSA algorithms allow for the identification of species association in complex multiphase materials.”
In his article, Smentkowski uses examples from GE studies to show how TOF-SIMS was used to discover unexpected contaminants in an alumina insulator, profile the cross-section of a SOFC (including the lightweight elements sodium and hydrogen), map elemental distribution and segregation on functionalized iron oxide particles and more.
The animation above (provided by instrument manufacturer, ION-TOF, GmbH) shows how ions are pulsed from the ion gun and bombard the sample, causing ions to be released from the specimen surface and subsequently detected and analyzed.
Be sure to read the article to learn more about TOF-SIMS and its capabilities. It may prove to be a valuable tool for your consideration, too.
Print copies will be in the mail by January 1, and the e-magazine will be available online in early January.
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