Affiliation:
1. Universiti Teknologi MARA
2. University Kebangsaan Malaysia
Abstract
This paper reports on the effects of Ag addition on physical properties of high
temperature superconductors DyBa2Cu3O7-δ (Dy123). A series of the Dy123 - Agx composite was
prepared by solid state reaction method with varying amount of metallic silver (x = 0 – 0.3).
Resistance versus temperature measurement was done using the four-point-probe method in the
temperature range of 79 K to 300 K. Pure DyBa2Cu3O7-δ was found to superconduct with Tc onset of
91 K and Tc zero of 78 K. Addition of Ag at x = 0.05 caused both Tc onset and Tc zero to increase to 93
K and 84 K, respectively. However, Tc onset and Tc zero dropped for higher silver contents. We found
that the optimum silver content in DyBa2Cu3O7-δ for best superconducting behavior and hardness is
between x = 0.05 and 0.10. Microstructure analysis using SEM and EDAX showed that most of the
silver is uniformly distributed along the grain boundaries filling the pores and hence increasing the
hardness of the samples.
Publisher
Trans Tech Publications, Ltd.
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,Condensed Matter Physics,General Materials Science