Making YBCO superconductor
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it in superconductor and LK-99 threads as evidence that YBCO can be made in a modest home lab.
What it is
Ben Krasnow of Applied Science shows how to make and test YBCO high-temperature superconductor with a kiln and eBay chemicals. He demonstrates flux pinning and shows a close-up of the crystal structure.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2021 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends eco · 2023-08 · on “Electronic Structure of LK-99”
I think he might be working on it. On Twitter he teased a homemade device for making very fine powder for, say, superconductors. Here's his video of making YBCO for anyone that hasn't seen it: [this video]
Cites gus_massa · 2021-03 · on “Cold Fusion or Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions, U.S. Navy Researchers Reopen Case”
The problem of Cold Fusion is the lack of a reliable experiment. Compare this with high temperature superconductivity. If you get a time machine and go to 1985 and try to promote high temperature superconductivity, nobody will take you seriously. But a team discover one material and published a clear recipe to built it. Other team tried some variations, and discovered an easier recipe to build them and published it. So soon everybody and their dog was making new variants, and new variants, and new variants... A few years ago, they gave one in the physics' lab for undergraduate students, and we made a few measurements for a month carefully because they don't tolerate humidity. Until someone p
Cites gus_massa · 2022-12 · on “Publicity Stunt Fallout”
Most of it, but there are some corners. For example, high temperature superconductivity was discovered in 1986 [1]. The process is not so complicated, and can be done at home. Well, at least in a very good personal lab, for example see this video by Applied Science. [this video] I think the original team made like 100 samples using different metals and different oxygen proportion. Discovering the first one requires some brute force that needs a small team, and is too much for a single person. Anyway, it doesn't look too far away from something a single person can discover. [1] That's 36 year ago. I'm feeling old...
Cites uyhgr · 2023-08 · on “LK99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K”
The term is “flux pinning”, and it only applies to the “quantum lock” effect. That is the specifically static hovering effect. The diamagnetism, importantly this means repulsion of both poles simultaneously and equally (this is how you can have these magnets spin, a regular magnet repels same poles and attracts opposites, diamagnets repel both poles), is simply a characteristic of the superconductor, but it alone would just repel the object off. Here is a timestamped link to NileRed’s YBCO video that visually describes the flux pinning: [LINK] And here’s a timestamped link to Ben Krasnow’s Applied Science YBCO video where he shows a close up of the crystal’s cross section that shows the impe