Proton incorporations and superconductivity in a cobalt oxyhydrate

Abstract

We report the evidence of proton incorporations in a newly-discovered cobalt oxyhydrate superconductor. During the hydration process for Na$_{0.32}$CoO$_{2}$ by the direct reaction with water liquid, it was shown that substantial NaOH was gradually liberated, indicating that H$^{+}$ is incorporated into the hydrated compound. Combined with the thermogravimetric analysis, the chemical composition of the typical sample is Na$_{0.22}$H$_{0.1}$CoO$_{2}\cdot 0.85$H$_{2}$O, which shows bulk superconductivity at 4.4 K.