Cuprate superconductor Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
A cuprate superconductor is a copper-oxide material exhibiting superconductivity, with layered copper-oxygen units central to its crystal structure. Chemical composition and oxygen content must accompany a quoted superconducting transition temperature; the nominal recipe of a mixed-phase pellet is not the composition of its superconducting constituent. The formal hole count in a cuprate illustrates the distinction between composition and electronic interpretation.
Ferri Oxidum Magneticum Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Ferri Oxidum Magneticum is a historical magnetic iron-oxide preparation. The named material was described through mixed higher and lower iron oxides, rather than as metallic iron.[ref]
Ferrum Redactum Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
Ferrum Redactum is a finely divided reduced-iron medicinal material. The physical form and possible oxide content distinguish the preparation from an arbitrary bulk piece of iron.[ref]
Oxide Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
An oxide is a compound in which oxygen is combined with another element, usually with oxygen formally in oxidation state . Ionic metal oxides and covalent nonmetal oxides can have very different structures.
For example, magnesium oxide is a lattice solid, whereas carbon dioxide is molecular. Peroxides contain an oxygen-oxygen unit with a different oxidation-state assignment, so they should not be treated as ordinary oxides merely because they contain oxygen.
In the ionic assignment, both tetrahedral anions would require Mn(VII), . Such a high oxidation state is strongly oxidizing and is best supported by strong bonding to oxygen. Short Mn–O bonds combine good orbital overlap with oxygen's resistance to further oxidation. This stabilizes permanganate relative to a hypothetical all-sulfide analogue.
sulfide is larger, more polarizable and much easier to oxidize than oxide. An attempted Mn(VII) sulfide would therefore combine an exceptionally oxidizing metal center with reducing ligands: internal redox can reduce manganese while oxidizing sulfur, for example toward S–S-bonded or elemental sulfur products. The larger sulfur donors also provide less favorable short multiple bonding to the small, highly charged manganese center. The oxygen compound supports Mn(VII); the sulfide combination is redox-incompatible. This predicts instability without requiring a specific unprovided decomposition product.
In modern notation the formulas are HCN, HCOOH, , , , , a hydrated potassium antimony tartrate, and , respectively. Several historical names need qualification.
The chemical formulas above use modern atomic weights and distinguish molecular formulas, formula units and hydrates. Historical equivalent notation sometimes halves the subscripts attached to divalent chemical elements or writes water as . Such formulas must be read together with their contemporary atomic weights, rather than treated as inconsistent modern molecular formulas.
Clean and degrease the nickel surface, remove its inhibiting oxide by an appropriate brief surface treatment, rinse, and immerse it in an aqueous bath containing reducible gold(III) species. Control concentration, temperature and immersion time, then rinse after the desired deposition. A solution of a gold complex is practical, but its actual reduction potential must be evaluated for that complex and bath: it need not equal the supplied free-ion standard potential.
At anodic sites nickel dissolves as , releasing electrons into the conducting substrate. Those electrons reduce gold ions at cathodic sites, nucleating and growing metallic gold. The nickel itself is the reducing agent, so no external electrical supply or separate reducing reagent is required. The coupled electron balance is three nickel atoms dissolved for two gold atoms deposited for the stated oxidation states.
The process can slow or stop when a sufficiently continuous gold coating prevents the electrolyte from reaching nickel. This is not an absolute thickness rule: pores, cracks or exposed edges preserve nickel dissolution and allow continued deposition, sometimes with undercutting. nickel passivation, depletion of gold ions near the surface, diffusion through a porous layer, bath speciation and competing reactions also affect the rate. Dense gold coverage and porous gold coverage therefore have very different limiting behavior.
The main characteristic peaks identify nickel and phosphorus: the spectrum has a strong Ni peak near , the Ni region near and P near . Weaker associated lines, including Ni near , can accompany them. The continuous background is bremsstrahlung from decelerated electrons.
Small carbon and oxygen signals at low energy can arise from contamination, surface oxide or preparation materials; a copper contribution can arise from the adjacent substrate within the finite interaction volume. The Cu region lies close to Ni , so overlap is particularly troublesome at low energy. A weak Cu contribution near is better separated, though still close to Ni . At the beam can excite these K lines.
Peak height is not an atomic fraction: ionization cross-sections, fluorescence yields, absorption, detector response, background and line overlap require correction. The large nickel peak therefore supports the nickel-rich assignment but does not directly give the nickel-to-phosphorus atomic ratio.
Reduced graphene oxide 2026-10-20
graphene oxide that has undergone partial removal of oxygen-containing groups; residual functional groups and lattice defects remain.
Sulfide 2026-10-20
A sulfide ion is formally . Relative to oxide it is larger, more polarizable and more readily oxidized; the ability of a metal to support a high oxidation state need not survive replacement of oxygen by sulfur.
The 1935 primary paper The Spin-Isomerization of Hydrogen at Paramagnetic and Diamagnetic Surfaces, pp. 1251–1252, describes evacuated catalyst samples cooled before admitting molecular hydrogen. Gas samples were analyzed in a glass cell in liquid air: a heated platinum wire and Wheatstone bridge converted changes in thermal conductivity into electrical resistance readings, calibrated against normal hydrogen.[ref]
Its comparison of oxide surfaces supplied a control: specimens exhibiting strong paramagnetism converted the gas much faster than the comparison exhibiting diamagnetism despite all adsorbing molecular hydrogen. Contact time, pressure, and temperature were recorded. This supports a role for surface magnetic properties beyond adsorption alone; it does not identify every microscopic surface site or directly measure nuclear-spin orientations.[ref]
The inference chain is preparation, contact with a specified surface, then a calibrated bulk transport readout of composition. It is distinct from a direct calorimetry measurement of heat capacity: transport and heat capacity can both depend on the spin populations, but they are different measured quantities. Changing the catalyst's own surface structure, introducing magnetic impurities, or changing the detector's gas pressure can confound an uncalibrated comparison. The free-rotor partition functions predict equilibrium populations and stored energy, not the conversion rate on a particular surface.
Zinc oxide 2026-10-20
An oxide semiconductor whose common wurtzite phase is piezoelectric.