Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun.
1993, 58, 1548-1554
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19931548
Decomposition of High Temperature Superconductors in Water
Olga Smrčkováa, Dagmar Sýkorováa, Pavel Svobodab and Petr Vašekb
a Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
b Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 180 40 Prague, Czech Republic
Abstract
Changes of magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistivity of ceramic superconductors of nominal composition YBa2Cu3O7-y and Bi1.4Pb0.6Sr2Ca2Cu3.6Ox observed during their soaking in water are reported. It was found that the YBa2Cu3O7-y superconductor is destroyed in few minutes by boiling water. At lower temperatures the hydrolysis reduces the volume of the superconductive phase, as seen from the susceptibility measurements. Reaction of Bi1.4Pb0.6Sr2Ca2Cu3.6Ox with water causes a decrease of the relative volume of both superconducting phases at a rate substantially higher for the high temperature one (Tc = 110 K).
