YBCO

[Strange Matter]

Does anybody happen to know of any facility that might be able to synthesize a 100 kg, single crystal of YBCO, or where to get the reagents to make it cheaply? For those of you who don't know, YBCO is a superconductor, which means it can conduct electricity without resistance below a certain temperature. I want a large, single crystal for an idea, but from what I understand it may be difficult to synthesize a single crystal of that size.

[CosmicCoyote]

Not... exactly your everyday question.

100 kilos, though?! That's less a crystal and more a... small boulder. I mean, doing the density conversions, you're talking about a stone that's equal to roughly 16 liters. I have to admit, one wonders what exactly you'd need that much for. Even if constructing that big a piece was easily feasible, cooling that entire mass to the critical temperature necessary for superconductivity would require quite a lot of liquid nitrogen. Not the sort of materials you'd find in your everyday science fair project. More like "engineering firm" level, tbh.

[Strange Matter]

Not... exactly your everyday question.

I have to admit, one wonders what exactly you'd need that much for. Even if constructing that big a piece was easily feasible, cooling that entire mass to the critical temperature necessary for superconductivity would require quite a lot of liquid nitrogen.

I don't actually need liquid nitrogen for what I am interested in. Also, how pure do you think the reagents would need to be?

[Sleet]

Wh...why do you need something like that?

[Strange Matter]

Wh...why do you need something like that?

Let's just say that I have an ambitious physics experiment that I want to attempt. I'm rather paranoid when it comes to people stealing my ideas, so it may best if I keep the details to myself.

By the way here is a link to a method a large crystal YBCO synthesis: http://www.google.com/patents/US6046139
Do any of you think it would work?

I'm really living up to my username, aren't I?

[Liam]

Info available on the net suggests to me YBCO superconducting crystals have a diameter of mere centimeters, so synthesizing a 100 kilogram block of the stuff wouldn't just be ambitious, but also revolutionary and, uh, non-trivial.

You may want to take this up to your university professor instead.

[Strange Matter]

Info available on the net suggests to me YBCO superconducting crystals have a diameter of mere centimeters, so synthesizing a 100 kilogram block of the stuff wouldn't just be ambitious, but also revolutionary and, uh, non-trivial.

You may want to take this up to your university professor instead.

Is the upper-limit of crystal size in centimeters, or has it not been attempted/would be difficult? Also, I have talked to a professor at my university, but he couldn't really help in this regard.