Pyrophoric synthesis technique for multicomponent high-temperature superconductors

A pyrophoric technique using an explosive exothermic reaction has been developed to yield calcined and microscopically homogeneous (0.3 μm size) powders of multicomponent cuprate systems. The technique has been used to synthesize superconducting materials of variable composition of the type M1M2···MnOx. The bulk materials prepared from these powders show sharp (1 K) superconducting transitions and nearly ideal Meissner effect