Method for making a superconducting YBCO wire or tape

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11858853-B2
Application number	US-202318363817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 2, 2023
Priority date	Sep 24, 2018
Publication date	Jan 2, 2024
Grant date	Jan 2, 2024

Abstract

A method of producing polycrystalline Y3Ba5Cu8Oy (Y-358) whereby powders of yttrium (III) oxide, a barium (II) salt, and copper (II) oxide are pelletized, calcined at 850 to 950° C. for 8 to 16 hours, ball milled under controlled conditions, pelletized again and sintered in an oxygen atmosphere at 900 to 1000° C. for up to 72 hours. The polycrystalline Y3Ba5Cu8Oy thus produced is in the form of elongated crystals having an average length of 2 to 10 μm and an average width of 1 to 2 μm, and embedded with spherical nanoparticles of yttrium deficient Y3Ba5Cu8Oy having an average diameter of 5 to 20 nm. The spherical nanoparticles are present as agglomerates having flower-like morphology with an average particles size of 30 to 60 nm. The ball milled polycrystalline Y3Ba5Cu8Oy prepared under controlled conditions shows significant enhancement of superconducting and flux pinning properties.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for making a superconducting wire or tape based on a YBCO superconductor matrix, comprising:
mixing powders of yttrium (III) oxide, barium carbonate, and copper(II) oxide then pelletizing to form a pelletized mixture;
calcining the pelletized mixture at a first temperature in the range 850-900° C. for to form a first calcined mixture;
grinding the first calcined mixture to form a first intermediate calcined mixture, then
calcining the first intermediate calcined mixture at a temperature in the range 850-900° C. to form a second calcined mixture, wherein the second calcined mixture is free from carbonate;
ball milling the second calcined mixture at a ball to powder ratio of 5:2 to produce a ball milled sample;
sintering the ball milled sample at a second temperature in the range 900-1000° C. to form a polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material; and
forming the superconductor wire or tape from the polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material;
wherein the polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material is in the form of elongated crystals having an average length of 2 to 10 μm and an average width of 1 to 2 μm, and are embedded with spherical nanoparticles of yttrium deficient Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y having an average diameter of 5 to 20 nm, wherein the spherical nanoparticles are in the form of flower-like agglomerates having an average particle size of 30 to 60 nm.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second calcined mixture is ball milled using a planetary ball milling technique for 3 to 5 hours at a rotational speed of 300 to 600 rpm.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second calcined mixture is ball milled with stainless-steel balls and vials.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second calcined mixture is ball milled noncontinuously in increments of 20 to 30 minutes separated by cooling off periods of 5 to 10 min.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ball milled sample is pelletized under a uniaxial pressure of about 750 MPa.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ball milled sample is sintered in an oxygen atmosphere at 950° C. for up to 72 hours.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material has a normalized transport critical current density, JctN, of 0.040 to 0.042 under an applied transverse magnetic field (μ 0 H) of 100 mT.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material has a magnetization critical current density J cm of 13×10 3 to 15×10 3 A·cm −2 and 550 to 570 A·cm −2 at 0 Tesla and 1 Tesla, respectively.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material has a lower critical magnetic field (B c1 (0)) of 7 to 7.25 Tesla and an upper critical magnetic field (B c2 (0)) of 580 to 585 Tesla.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline Y 3 Ba 5 Cu 8 O y material has an estimated critical current density at temperature T=0K J c (0)) of 320×10 3 to 330×10 3 A·cm −2 .

Assignees

• Univ Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal

Inventors

• Slimani Yassine

Classifications

• C04B35/4504 Primary

  containing rare earth oxides · CPC title

• C04B35/6262

  of calcined, sintered clinker or ceramics · CPC title

• C04B35/62615

  High energy or reactive ball milling · CPC title

• C30B29/225

  based on rare earth copper oxides, e.g. high T-superconductors · CPC title

• H10N60/857

  comprising copper oxide · CPC title