Influence of powder preparation route on superconducting properties of MgB2 wires

C. E. SOBRERO; M. T. MALACHEVSKY; E. OLIBER; F. GENNARI; A. SERQUIS

Genova

Congreso; Eucas 2013; 2013

ESAS

The low cost, low weight and high superconducting critical temperature (Tc) make the MgB2 attractive for technological applications. For the present work we used three different types of powders to generate wires: attrition milled commercial MgB2 (35 hours at 300 rpm in nitrogen), commercial MgB2 with 5% wt SiC and a non-commercial MgB2 produced in our laboratory. The synthesis of the non-commercial powder was performed by reaction of an as-milled LiBH4-MgH2 mixture under controlled conditions of hydrogen pressure and temperature, simultaneously with LiH formation as co-product. Powder in tube (PIT) method was used to prepare stainless steel single and multifilamentary MgB2 wires. We investigated different thermal treatments and mechanical paths during the processing of the wires. The superconducting properties were analyzed by magnetization measurements in a SQUID magnetometer. The correlation between the thermal treatments, structure, composition of the reaction layers and superconducting properties is discussed