Magnetic and transport properties of PrBa2Cu4O8-? prepared at 1 atm oxygen pressure

Measurements of physical properties were performed on the PrBa2Cu4O8-δ sample prepared by the sol-gel method and sintered in I atm oxygen pressure. Instead of exhibiting superconductivity as for R Y or Gd in the RBa2Cu4O8-δ compound. This compound is unstable, insulating but metallic-like at low temperatures. No superconductivity was observed down to 2 K. Since PrBa2Cu4O8-δ can be re-written as Cu2Ba2PrCu2O8-δ which is a compound of two CuO2-layers and two CuO-chains, the possibility of anomalous Pr antiferromagnetic ordering around 18 K observed from preliminary magnetic data and the effect of oxygen stoichiotmetry parameter δ on the metal-insulator transition are explored.