Growth kinetics and morphological transformation of Bi-2223 crystals

Abstract

Avrami’s equation was found to be the best kinetics theory to describe the high-Tc Bi-2223 crystal formation so far. There are three parameters (exponential index n, activation energy E and parameter k) in the equation. A series of research works have been done on the determination of parameters n and E, but few on another parameter k are to be found. The purpose of the approach was to determine and study the role of k in the formation of Bi-2223 crystals. The analysis in the research showed that the parameter k could describe the exhausting speed of reactants, and determine reaction probability and mean lifetime of reactants. The growth mechanism of the 2223 polycrystals was found to show some differences from the prediction of the Avrami’s theory model. At the initial duration, the 2223 crystal growth was much lower than the theoretical prediction; especially there was a mature duration to be found at the last growth duration, at which the 2223 crystal almost did not increase, but its crystal grains obviously became larger. This was a typical morphological transformation. The morphological transformation was the first time to be reported for the growth of the 2223 phase.