Fabrication of superconducting YBCO agglomerated particles (ANPs) by electrospinning

Abstract

Superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) agglomerated nanoparticle (ANPs) was fabricated by electrospinning technique and sol-gel of a homogeneous precursor of Y-Ba-Cu acetate and Poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The sol-gel solution of YBCO is conducted by adding 4.0 g of (Y-Ba-Cu) metal acetate according to a stoichiometric ratio of 1:2:3 molar mass and 5.0 g of PVP powder in 25.0 ml solution contains propionic acid 10 ml, acetic acid 5 ml and methanol 10 ml. By optimizing electrospinning process, sol-gel parameters and heat treatment, YBCO ANPs were obtained with a transition temperature of Tc ~90 K using the AC susceptibility. YBCO ANPs was found with high surface area 6.8310 m2/g, and not affected by high calcination temperature at 950 oC in comparison with bulk YBCO sample. XRD Characterization of YBCO was demonstrated YBCO has orthorhombic phase, FESEM images of the electrospun YBCO sample showed ANPs of size in the 200 – 400 nm range. A closer examination revealed that agglomerates contain finer particles of size ~50 nm. Electrospinning is an effective technique can produce various morphologies of YBCO superconductor at the nanoscale with unique properties for practical applications.