Block copolymer self-assembly–directed synthesis of mesoporous gyroidal superconductors

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 2; no. 1; p. e1501119
• Main Authors: Robbins, Spencer W., Beaucage, Peter A., Sai, Hiroaki, Tan, Kwan Wee, Werner, Jörg G., Sethna, James P., DiSalvo, Francis J., Gruner, Sol M., Van Dover, Robert B., Wiesner, Ulrich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States AAAS 01.01.2016; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Niobium - chemistry; Polymers - chemistry; Porosity; SciAdv r-articles; Superconductivity; Superconductors
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501119

Block copolymer self-assembly is used to synthesize three-dimensionally continuous gyroidal mesoporous superconductors of niobium nitride. Superconductors with periodically ordered mesoporous structures are expected to have properties very different from those of their bulk counterparts. Systematic studies of such phenomena to date are sparse, however, because of a lack of versatile synthetic approaches to such materials. We demonstrate the formation of three-dimensionally continuous gyroidal mesoporous niobium nitride (NbN) superconductors from chiral ABC triblock terpolymer self-assembly–directed sol-gel–derived niobium oxide with subsequent thermal processing in air and ammonia gas. Superconducting materials exhibit a critical temperature ( T c ) of about 7 to 8 K, a flux exclusion of about 5% compared to a dense NbN solid, and an estimated critical current density ( J c ) of 440 A cm −2 at 100 Oe and 2.5 K. We expect block copolymer self-assembly–directed mesoporous superconductors to provide interesting subjects for mesostructure-superconductivity correlation studies.