chemistry

Rare-earth barium copper oxide

Rare-earth barium copper oxide is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rare-earth barium copper oxide rather than just read about it. In short: Rare-earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) is a family of chemical compounds known for exhibiting high-temperature superconductivity (HTS). ReBCO superconductors have the potential to sustain stronger magnetic fields than other superconductor materials.

Key takeaways

Rare-earth barium copper oxide belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rare-earth barium copper oxide to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rare-earth barium copper oxide from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rare-earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) is a family of chemical compounds known for exhibiting high-temperature superconductivity (HTS). ReBCO superconductors have the potential to sustain stronger magnetic fields than other superconductor materials. Due to their high critical temperature and critical magnetic field, this class of materials are proposed for use in technical applications where conventional low-temperature superconductors do not suffice. This includes magnetic confinement fusion reactors such as the ARC reactor, allowing a more compact and potentially more economical construction, and superconducting magnets to use in future particle accelerators to come after the Large Hadron Collider, which utilizes low-temperature superconductors.

Materials Any rare-earth element can be used in a ReBCO; popular choices include yttrium (YBCO), lanthanum (LBCO), samarium (Sm123), neodymium (Nd123 and Nd422), gadolinium (Gd123) and europium (Eu123), where the numbers among parenthesis indicate the molar ratio among rare-earth, barium and copper.

YBCO

The most famous ReBCO is yttrium barium copper oxide, YBa2Cu3O7−x (or Y123), the first superconductor found with a critical temperature above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Its molar ratio is 1 to 2 to 3 for yttrium, barium, and copper and it has a unit cell consisting of subunits, which is the typical structure of perovskites. In particular, the subunits are three, overlapping and containing an yttrium atom at the center of the middle one and a barium atom at the center of the others. Therefore, yttrium and barium are stacked according to the sequence [Ba-Y-Ba], along an axis conventionally denoted by c, (the vertical direction in the figure at the top right). The resulting cell has an orthorhombic structure, unlike other superconducting cuprates that generally have a tetragonal structure. All the corner sites of the unit cell are occupied by copper, which has two different coordinates, Cu(1) and Cu(2), with respect to oxygen. It offers four possible crystallographic sites for oxygen: O(1), O(2), O(3), and O(4).

History Because these kind of materials are brittle it was difficult to create wires from them. After 2010, industrial manufacturers started to produce tapes, with different layers encapsulating the ReBCO material, opening the way to commercial uses. In September 2021 Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) created a test magnet with ReBCO tape that handled a current of 40,000 amperes, with a magnetic field of 20 tesla at 20 K. One important innovation was to avoid insulating the tape, saving space and lowering required voltages. Another was the size of the magnet: 10 tons, far larger than any prior experiment. The magnet assembly consisted of 16 plates, called pancakes, each hosting a spiral winding of tape on one side and cooling channels on the other. In 2023, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory generated 32 tesla with a ReBCO superconducting magnet. A 40T superconducting magnet is under construction. In June 2024, the first plasma was achieved in the HH70 tokamak, developed by the China-based fusion energy company Energy Singularity. Using ReBCO as material for the superconductors enabled the company to reduce the size of the HH70 tokamak to two percent of conventional tokamaks.

See also Cuprate superconductor List of superconductors

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rare-earth barium copper oxide

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rare-earth barium copper oxide claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rare-earth barium copper oxide before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rare-earth barium copper oxide ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rare-earth barium copper oxide

In research: Rare-earth barium copper oxide appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rare-earth barium copper oxide in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rare-earth barium copper oxide is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Barium compounds, Copper compounds, High-temperature superconductors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rare-earth barium copper oxide outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Rare-earth barium copper oxide in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rare-earth barium copper oxide means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rare-earth barium copper oxide out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rare-earth barium copper oxide in simple terms?

Why does Rare-earth barium copper oxide matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rare-earth barium copper oxide?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rare-earth barium copper oxide.