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

Abstract

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 selfassembly- directed sol-gel-derived niobium oxide with subsequent thermal processing in air and ammonia gas. Superconducting materials exhibit a critical temperature (Tc) of about 7 to 8 K, a flux exclusion of about 5%compared to a dense NbN solid, and an estimated critical current density (Jc) of 440 A cm-2 at 100Oe and 2.5 K. We expectblock copolymer self-assembly-directed mesoporous superconductors to provide interesting subjects for mesostructuresuperconductivity correlation studies.