Sintered superconductors

Powders of YBa2Cu3Ox have been synthesized by two different techniques. One of them, the reaction suspension route, uses Ba(OH)2, Y2O3 and a solution of copper acetate as the starting material. The other one uses soluble organometallics. The synthesis conditions and the physical and chemical characteristics of the resulting powders are summarized. Precursors made by the organometallic route can be converted to YBa2Cu3Ox at significantly lower temperature resulting in finer powder. Processing studies have been carried out on both kinds of powders. In this paper the effect of processing variables on the densification behavior and the critical current density has been studied. Powders made by the reaction suspension route were used for this study in which the sintering temperature and the cooling rate from sintering temperature were varied. It was found that the sintering temperature had the most profound effect on the densification behavior and critical current density