Investigation of structural effects of Bi nanoparticle addition on HTSC BSCCO-2223, through the sol-gel method

In this research, the influence of Bi nanoparticles addition on the high temperature superconductor BSCCO-2223 is studied. For this purpose, the samples were synthesized by the conventional sol-gel method before adding the Bi nanoparticles with x= 0.00, 0.03, 0.06, 0.12wt% to the superconductor BSCCO-2223. The structural characterization of all the samples was done by X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD). Also, the microstructural and grain connectivity of the samples were investigated with the “Scanning Electron Microscope” (SEM). In addition, the volume fraction of all the samples was estimated by the “Material Analysis Using Diffraction” (MAUD) software. The results show that the sample with non-added Bi has the highest volume fraction of Bi-2223 phase (77.3%) compared to the samples with added Bi nanoparticles. Furthermore, the SEM photographs show that when Bi nanoparticles addition increases, the porosity and voids increase. Therefore, the experimental results indicate that structural properties and crystallographic of samples weaken by the increase of Bi nanoparticles as an additive in the high temperature superconductor BSCCO-2223.