The study of ultrasonic irradiation effects on solid state powders of HTc superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x

Abstract

In this paper, an ultrasound assisted solid state synthesis method for high-temperature (HT[Formula: see text]) YBa2Cu3O[Formula: see text] (YBCO) superconductor nanostructures with different morphologies is presented. Here, the routine heat treatment of the powder mixture of as-prepared precursors is followed by the ultrasound irradiation inside various alcoholic solutions. Not only the influence of the ultrasound irradiation intensity and duration but also the influence of different solvents such as ethanol, methanol and 1-butanol with various vapor pressures and so various destruction powers were also studied on the morphology and particle size of the products. The various morphologies were studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM) which not only have been affected by intensity and type of alcoholic solvent but also sonication time and ultrasound power have significant role as well. Formation of the YBCO superconducting phase was examined by using Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) which indicates the crystalline preferred growth in [Formula: see text]-axis orientation in crystal. Magnetic susceptibility measurements showed the ultrasound waves had no important effect on the onset critical temperature of the prepared nanorods (about 91.64 K) which is compared with the bulk samples [Formula: see text].