The easy way to make YBCO involves multiple rounds of pulverizing yttrium oxide, barium chloride carbonate, and copper oxide together and heating them in a furnace. That works, sort of ...

Carbonate ions also produce a white precipitate with barium chloride solution. The acid reacts with any carbonate ions present. This removes them, so stopping them giving a false positive result.

Radiological sources are vital to many applications, and typically contain byproducts from waste streams which decay over time to form complex mixtures of elements. Daughter products resulting from ...