Abstract
We investigated the effect of silver, Ag(In) alloy and Y2BaCuO5 (the so-called Y-211 green phase) on melt-textured samples of YBa2Cu3O7-δ (Y-123) phase in order to check whether better grain growth and alignment were possible. We demonstrate that the addition of silver to Y-123 always led to an enhanced texture. The typical microstructure of the composite Y-123 plus Y-211 (that is believed essential for high critical currents in these high Tc superconductors) was not disturbed by addition of silver up to 7.5 wt% while higher concentrations of metal led to a degradation of the texture. Differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis were used to investigate the influence of silver and Ag(In) alloy on the Y-Ba-Cu-O equilibria around the Y-123 phase. We found a very unexpected thermal behaviour, similar to eutectic equilibrium, when the silver concentration was increased to 35 wt%. We believe that this effect was essentially due to the increasingly higher concentration of silver that could react with the impurities present in the melt.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1113-1125 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Philosophical Magazine B: Physics of Condensed Matter; Statistical Mechanics, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Properties |
Volume | 80 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2000 May |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Physics and Astronomy(all)