Influence of pH during modified sol-gel process to synthesized pure phased YBCO

Full text: Among numerous studies of high-Tc superconductor compound, the YBCO system is the most studied system. During 3 last decades synthesized of high quality pure homogeneous powder were done. One of these methods was modified citrate gel that was widely used to obtain nanosized single phase YBCO. One of the most important factors to yield pure product is adjustment of the pH during the gelation. Then in this work, we adjusted different pH for gelatin and compare phase purity and elemental composition by using XRD and EDS. To synthesize the YBCO, we used Nitrate of metal (Y, Ba, Cu) as precursor. stoichiometric (1:2:3) amount of metal nitrate were solved in distilled water and mixed with constant stirring, (for each equivalent gram of metal nitrate add one equivalent gram of citric acid) and stirred up to have unclear light blue solution and the ethylendiamine was added drop wise to adjust pH from 4.56 to 7.45. Then the solution was heated up 80 C to achieve viscous gel. The color changed from dark blue to purple according to pH. The gel was heated on furnace up to 520 C and kept for 2 hours. During heating the gel swell and filled the baker then special attention is needed to use over sized baker. Obtained powder was calcined for 22h at 900 C to yield homogeneous pure phase and then pellets with 1 sm diameter in 10 ton pressure were produced and sintered for 19 h at 930 C and annealed to room temperature in oxygen. Resistivity measurement using standard four probe technique exhibit Tc (zero) from 90 K to 94 K. The samples were discussed by XRD, SEM and EDS. (authors)