Tailoring nano-sized electron-doped superconductors: The impact of sintering temperatures on particle size and crystal structure

UNPAD Team Tunes Nanoparticle Size & Phase Purity in Electron-Doped Cuprates—Advancing SDG 9 (Innovation & Infrastructure)
A Universitas Padjadjaran–BRIN team synthesized Eu₁.₈₆Ce₀.₁₄CuO₄₊α−δ (ECCO) nanoparticles via sol–gel, then varied sintering 800–1050 °C to control structure and size. XRD–Rietveld confirms the tetragonal T′ structure across all samples, while phase purity increases with temperature: ECCO fraction ≈91.1% → 96.3% and CeO₂ impurity ≈8.0% → 3.7%. FE-SEM/ImageJ shows particle size rising systematically (≈74, 87, 127, 137 nm), and Scherrer crystallites ≈64–105 nm. XRF indicates the closest stoichiometric match near 900 °C, with oxygen reduction δ ≈ 0.001–0.095 measured gravimetrically. Together, these data provide a clean knob—sintering temperature—to tailor nanoscale cuprates for future functional studies and devices.

Read more (Open Access DOI): https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0254586