Water, ethanol, and hydrochloric acid containing solutions of silicon ethoxide, titanium butoxide, and zirconium pro-poxide have been developed which show a constant viscosity for some days. The influence of formamide additions on the viscosity behavior was studied too.

Glass slides have been dip coated in the solutions, dried in ethanol containing atmosphere, and baked at 300 ° C. Multilayered films were obtained by repeating this procedure. After a final baking at 500 ° C, crack-free transparent SiO2-TiO2-ZrO2 glassy films have been obtained. Compared to the substrate, the films of thicknesses below 500 nm were very stable against hot NaOH solution. The stability of the coatings was analyzed by detection of the remaining TiO2 and ZrO2 in the films after the attack. This was done by a x-ray fluorescence (XFA) technique.

Dense polycrystalline thin films of ZrO2 (3 and 8 mol% Y2O3) were produced by the pyrolysis of zirconium acetate precursor films, which were deposited on single crystal Al2O3 substrates by spin-coating solutions of zirconium acetate. With grain growth, these films broke into islands of ZrO2 grains. Thermodynamic calculations show that this break up lowers the free energy of the system. These calculations also predict the conditions needed for polycrystalline thin film stability.

YBa2Cu3O7−x has been synthesized by two chemical ways, one from oxalate coprecipitation, the other one from metalloorganic decomposition. Superconducting properties of the resulting samples have been checked by means of resistivity and magnetic measurements. Low temperature specific heat data allow to propose an explanation to the residual linear term.