Synthesis of spherical superconductors†
Abstract
The cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−δ (Y123) has been synthesised for the first time in a spherical morphology. The use of carboxymethyl-dextran in a pre-formed, spherical morphology enables not only the engineering of this new macromorphological motif, but also crystallochemical control of the superconductor at the nano-scale.