The influence of re-pelletization and heat treatment on physical, superconducting, magnetic and micro-mechanical properties of bulk BSCCO samples prepared by ammonium nitrate precipitation method

The influence of re-pelletization and annealing time on the structural, magnetic, electrical and mechanical properties of Bi-based high temperature bulk superconductor have been investigated. All samples used in this study have been prepared by a wet technique denoted as ammonium nitrate precipitation method. The samples have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), resistance vs. temperature (R-T), magnetic hysteresis (M-H) and hardness vs. applied load (H-v-F)measurements. Bi-2223 and Bi-2212 peaks as major phases have been observed with small amounts of impurities from XRD results. The microstructures of most samples show a plate-like granular form. The grain sizes have been investigated by SEM and XRD. The critical transition temperature (Tc) has been obtained from resistivity measurements in the range of 99-110 K, depending on the annealing time and re-pelletization. The calculated maximum critical current density (Jc), using Beans' model, is around 12,000 A/cm2 at 10 K similar to 0.2 T. Moreover, all prepared samples exhibit reverse indentation size effect (RISE) behavior and hardness increased with re-pelletization according to results obtained from mechanical measurements.