Surface modification of materials has often led to new and improved properties. Corrosion inhibition, polymer adhesion and nucleation, preparation of organic superconductor/insulator/high-T superconductor trilayer structures, and the fabrication of metal/insulator/superconductor tunnel junctions have been developed using surface-modified YBCO.
These molecular layered materials are synthesized using cyclic voltammetry. Thus far, YBCO layered with alkylamines, arylamines, and thiols have been produced with varying stability of the molecular layer. It has been proposed that amines act as Lewis bases and bind to Lewis acidic Cu surface sites in YBaCuO to form stable coordination bonds.