Benjamin SM. Intercalate Superconductivity and van der Waals Equation.
ACS MATERIALS AU 2022;
2:436-439. [PMID:
35928829 PMCID:
PMC9341279 DOI:
10.1021/acsmaterialsau.2c00015]
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Abstract
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Superconductivity
in two single-element intercalated compounds
has been investigated with the van der Waals equation. For CuxTiSe2 and YBa2Cu3O6+x, the van der Waals term characterizing
the attractive energy per particle (i.e., electrons), aN/V, is calculated from concentration-dependent transition
temperature plots derived from experiment. It is shown that two times
the attractive energy per intercalant valence electron (2aNval/Vunit) is equal to the
energy gap predicted by BCS theory (Δ) for these superconductors.
This realization allows another way to estimate the energy gap of
superconducting intercalated insulators and semiconductors, this time,
directly from physical real-space properties of the superconductor
and the applied external pressure. The physical properties of importance
are shown to be the intercalant concentration, transition temperature,
and the number of intercalant valence electrons per unit cell volume.
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