Comparison between Solid State Reaction and Coprecipitation Method of Titanium Oxide Addition on the YBa2Cu3Oδ Ceramics

Abstract

In this work, comparison of TiO2 additions on the physical properties of YBa2Cu3Oδ superconductor system with nominal starting compositions at x= 0, 1, 2, and 5 wt.% was studied derived via solid state reaction and co-precipitation method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The result from XRD shown that all the samples were polycrystalline for solid state reaction, while single phase appear for co-precipitation methods. The intensity of the peak become higher with increasing amount of TiO2 addition indicating the presence of increased amount of the unreacted in the samples. The refine lattice parameters indicated that all the samples have an orthorhombic crystal structure without occurrence of orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transformation. Furthermore, from SEM images for solid state reaction and co-precipitation method showed that the grain size of the samples decreased with TiO2 increased. Small addition of TiO2 derived from co-precipitation method enhanced the YBCO microstructures.