🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20175@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@amdcad.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes:
>
>It just hit me that I could build a superconductor in my own garage,
>given access to liquid nitrogen. (don't ask why it took so long)
>
>Has anyone reading this done so? Got any good recipes? Sources of the
>chemicals needed? (I shouldn't have any problem getting the liquid


The following article appeared in December 28th issue of Electronic 
Engineering Times:

"Do-It-Yourself" Kit Spreads Gospel Of Superconductivity To The Masses

By Roland C. Wittenberg

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It had to happen sooner or later, but the recent
increase in the activity in high-temperature superconducting materials
made it sooner.  Superconductive components Inc. (SCI), the supplier
of the first commercially available improved
yttrium-barium-copper-oxide super conducting powders, has rolled out a
superconducting fabrication and demonstration kit for the
experimenter, and students in high school of college.  

SCI offers two basic kits: a $50 demonstration kit and a fabrication
and demonstration kit that is tagged from $200.  The demonstration kit
includes a prefabricated superconducting disk, a rear earth magnet and
a plastic tweezer for handling the cooled disk.  The only additional
material needed is liquid nitrogen to cool the disk for demonstrating
the Meissner effect, in which a superconducting disk can be floated
over a magnet.  

The fabrication kit includes all the materials in the demonstration
kit plus:  10 grams (or more, depending on price) of yttrium-oxide,
barium-carbonate, and copper-oxide; a mortar and pestle; a crucible;
a pill die for compressing the material into 1/2-inch disks; and
gloves, spoons and masks.  Two scanning electron microscope
photographs are included for those experimenters who want to examine
and compare the detailed structure of the material.

In order to fabricate disks of the superconducting material, the
experimenter needs the following facilities that are usually found in
the school laboratory or shop: a kiln for several 12 hour cycles at
1,000 degrees C to fire and anneal the superconducting material; a
vise for operating the pill die; and the liquid nitrogen source.  

The demonstration kit comes with a shout instruction manual, while the
fabrication kit includes an extensive manual on manufacturing and
testing superconducting materials.



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