Elemental Substitution at Tl Site of Tl1-xXx(Ba, Sr)CaCu2O7 Superconductor with X = Cr, Bi, Pb, Se, and Te.

The effects of elemental substitutions at the Tl site of a Tl1-xXx(Ba, Sr)CaCu2O7 superconductor with X = Cr, Bi, Pb, Se, and Te were investigated. This study aimed to determine the elements that enhance and suppress the superconducting transition temperature of the Tl1-xXx(Ba, Sr)CaCu2O7 (Tl-1212) phase. The selected elements belong to the groups of transition metal, post-transition metal, non-metal, and metalloid. The relationship between the transition temperature and ionic radius of the elements was also discussed. The samples were prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The XRD patterns showed a single Tl-1212 phase was formed in the non- and Cr-substituted (x = 0.15) samples. The Cr-substituted samples (x = 0.4) showed a plate-like structure with smaller voids. The highest superconducting transition temperatures (Tc onset, Tcχ', and Tp) were also achieved by the Cr-substituted samples for x = 0.4 compositions. However, the substitution of Te suppressed the superconductivity of the Tl-1212 phase. Jc inter (Tp) for all samples was calculated to be in the range of 12-17 A/cm2. This work shows that substitution elements with a smaller ionic radius tend to be more favorable in improving the superconducting properties of the Tl-1212 phase.

Structural and Superconducting Properties of Thermal Treatment-Synthesised Bulk YBa2Cu3O7-δ Superconductor: Effect of Addition of SnO2 Nanoparticles.

YBa2Cu3O7-δ (Y-123) bulk superconductors with the addition of (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 wt.%) SnO2 nanoparticles were synthesised via a thermal treatment method. The influence of SnO2 addition on the superconducting properties by means of critical temperature, Tc, AC susceptibility, phase formation and microstructures, including its elemental composition analysis, were studied. Sharp superconducting transition, ∆Tc, and diamagnetic transition were obtained for all SnO2-added samples. It was observed that sample x = 0.4 with a Y-123 phase percentage of 95.8% gives the highest Tc, smallest ∆Tc, and the sharpest diamagnetic transition in the normalised susceptibility curves. The microstructure also showed an excess of Sn precipitates on the sample's surface at x = 0.8 and above. As such, the best superconducting properties were observed at x = 0.4 SnO2 addition inside the Y-123 host sample.