Supercritical antisolvent precipitation: a new technique for preparing submicronic yttrium powders to improve YBCO superconductors

The solvent, supercritical antisolvent technique (SAS) has been used to produce submicronic particles of yttrium acetate for the synthesis of YBCO superconductors. For this purpose, in a continuous SAS apparatus dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as yttrium acetate solvent and supercritical carbon dioxide as antisolvent have been adopted. Experiments have been performed in the pressure range between 70 and 160 bar and for temperatures between 40 and 70 degrees C. Different concentrations of yttrium acetate in DMSO have also been tested. Various morphologies of yttrium acetate particles have been obtained, having mean particle diameters from 0.1 to 7 mu m. At 40 degrees C and pressures larger than 120 bar, submicronic spherical particles of yttrium acetate of about 0.1 mu m diameter and with a narrow particle size distribution have been achieved.