Crystallographic and microstructural aspects of the superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-y —an overview

Crystal structures and structural inhomogeneities observed in YBa₂Cu₃O_7-y are reviewed. It is brought out that a proper understanding of the nature of the structural inhomogeneities is essential for exploiting the technological potential of this material. The need for an adequate characterization of specimens used for experiments is emphasized. Practical implications of the ferroelastic nature of the material are discussed.     

Intra- and Inter-molecular Sulf- hydryl Hydrogen Bonding: Facilitating Proton Transfer Events for Determination of pH in Sea Water

This work presents the electrochemical response of a 2-(methylthio)phenol glassy carbon based electrode for a promising voltammetric pH sensor in both buffered and low-buffered solutions. Electropolymerization of the redox species was performed with the resulting polymer presenting a Nernstian response in buffered media, with a sensitivity of 51 mV/pH unit. The effectiveness of the sulfhydryl bond to facilitate proton transfer from the bulk solution to the phenol molecules has been confirmed, providing an accurate pH measurement of 8.28 in sea water media, compared to that measured with a calibrated glass pH probe of 8.30.     

Effect of crystal and collimator misalignments on Bragg angle measurements

A mathematical analysis has been made of the combined effect of crystal and collimator misalignments on Bragg angles measured from zero-layer Weissenberg photographs. The results obtained here have been compared with those available for Bond’s method of measuring Bragg angles with diffractometers. The comparison shows that, for a given amount of crystal and collimator misalignments, Bond’s method and the 2 θ-method do not give identical results for small and intermediate Bragg angles.     

A point‐defect model of structural phase transitions in the ferroelastic superconductor Y-Ba-Cu-O

A point-defect model of structural phase transitions in YBa₂Cu₃O_{6 + x} is proposed. The model treats the basal-plane oxygen atoms as point defects. The treatment parallels the work of Alefeld and coworkers on ferroelasticity due to hydrogen in metals. The model predicts that the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic phase transition should be accompanied by precipitation into regions of high and low oxygen density, as well as high and low oxygen ordering. This is in agreement with experiment, as well as with the predictions of Khachaturyan's concentration-wave model. A new feature of the present model is the prediction of two characteristic temperatures related, respectively, to Snoek-type and Gorsky-type diffusive relaxations. Practical implications of the high diffusivity of the basal-plane oxygens include the easy fabricability of a bicrystal of Y-Ba-Cu-O such that the two components of the bicrystal are rotated by 90° with respect to each other, and are separated by a non-superconducting layer. Such a bicrystal can find applications as a Josephson-tunneling device.     

Immobilized anthraquinone for redox mediation of horseradish peroxidase for hydrogen peroxide sensing

The detection of hydrogen peroxide is detailed using horseradish peroxidase and anthraquinone. Both species are immobilized on a glassy carbon electrode substrate. This dual immobilization gives rise to lower detection limits compared with the situation when either of the species is immobilized. Detection limits of 40 nM are reported within physiologically-relevant media.     

Low temperature electrochemistry as a mechanistic probe for the partial reduction of heterocycles

The reduction of a series of electron deficient aromatic heterocycles has been examined using electrochemical techniques: the analysis was performed under anhydrous conditions at low temperature, so as to mimic typical synthetic reducing conditions.     

Ultrafast voltammetry for probing interfacial electron transfer in molecular wires.

Electron transfer inside self-assembled monolayers made from complex redox-active oligophenylenevinylene molecular wires is examined by ultrafast cyclic voltammetry. Rate constants above 10(6) s(-1) are measured when the electroactive moieties are easily accessible to counterions from the electrolyte. These counterion movements are necessary to compensate the local charge created upon electron transfer. Conversely, if the redox center is buried within long hydrophobic diluents, the counterion movement towards the redox entity becomes rate limiting, thus drastically altering the rate magnitude and its physical meaning. This change in the mechanism is examined both for superexchange or when one electron-hopping step is involved.