Fabrication of superconducting YBCO agglomerated particles (ANPs) by electrospinning

Abstract

Superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) agglomerated nanoparticle (ANPs) was fabricated by electrospinning technique and sol-gel of a homogeneous precursor of Y-Ba-Cu acetate and Poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The sol-gel solution of YBCO is conducted by adding 4.0 g of (Y-Ba-Cu) metal acetate according to a stoichiometric ratio of 1:2:3 molar mass and 5.0 g of PVP powder in 25.0 ml solution contains propionic acid 10 ml, acetic acid 5 ml and methanol 10 ml. By optimizing electrospinning process, sol-gel parameters and heat treatment, YBCO ANPs were obtained with a transition temperature of T_c ~90 K using the AC susceptibility. YBCO ANPs was found with high surface area 6.8310 m²/g, and not affected by high calcination temperature at 950 ^oC in comparison with bulk YBCO sample.  XRD Characterization of YBCO was demonstrated YBCO has orthorhombic phase, FESEM images of the electrospun YBCO sample showed ANPs of size in the 200 – 400 nm range. A closer examination revealed that agglomerates contain finer particles of size ~50 nm. Electrospinning is an effective technique can produce various morphologies of YBCO superconductor at the nanoscale with unique properties for practical applications.