Illustrative Applications
An example of a material prepared using a tube furnace is the superconductor YBa2Cu3O7. A mixture of finely powdered CuO, BaO, and Y2O3, in the appropriate molar ratio, contained in a platinum or alumina "boat," heated in a tube furnace at several hundred degrees under flowing oxygen. Similarly tantalum disulfide is prepared in a tube furnace followed by purification, also in a tube furnace using the technique of chemical vapor transport. Because of the availability of tube furnaces, chemical vapor transport has become a popular technique not only in industry (see van Arkel process) but also in the research laboratory.
Tube furnaces can also be used for thermolysis reactions, involving either organic or inorganic reactants. One such example is the preparation of ketenes which may employ a tube furnace in the 'ketene lamp'. Flash vacuum pyrolyses often utilize a fused quartz tube, usually packed with quartz or ceramic beads, which is heated at high temperatures.
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