Fabrication and characterization of BSCCO powder with the addition of nanosize aluminium oxide / Siti Fairuz Mohd Noor

Nanometer AI2O3 particles were introduced into BSCCO system to act as flux pinning centers. It has been added to Bii.6, Pbo.4, Sr2, Ca2, Q13, Ox (Bi- 2223) precursor powders during the final sintering cycle of a multi-step preparation process. The influence of AI2O3 on the Tc, Jc and phase formation of ceramics was studied by means of electrical measurement and XRD. This research shows that the addition of a small amount of AI2O3 (0.3wt%).increased the pellet's critical current density, Jc at 77K. The result indicate that the introduction of a proper amount of nano-Al203 particles during the final processing of BSCCO samples can affectively improve the flux pinning ability and has a little detrimental effect on the (Bi-Pb)-2223 formation process. The proportions of Bi-2223/Bi-2212(%) phase in the phase mixture were estimated to be 75.5/24.5 and 91.8/8.2 % respectively for samples with addition 0.0 wt% and 0.3 wt%. The results were compared with bulk sample without nano-particles AI2O3 addition.