Effect of Zr Addition on BiPbSrCaCuO Superconductor.

The polycrystalline BiPbSrCaCu MO, with M = Zr ( x = 0.0, 0.02, 0.04), were synthesized by solid-state reaction method and studied by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive of X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX) and resistivity versus temperature measurements. The influence of the Zr addition on the Tc and microstructure properties of the superconducting compounds has been studied. SEM observations show whiskers grains randomly distributed and microstructural change due to the addition of Zr. The ZrO was incorporated into the crystalline structure of BSCCO system in all samples. The crystallographic structure remains in a tetragonal form where a= b≠ c. Generally, all samples exhibit semiconductor behaviour above $T_{\mathrm {c}}^{\text {onset}}$ . The onset critical temperature $T_{\mathrm {c}}^{\text {onset}}$ increases up to 86 with x = 0.02. There is an enhancement in the critical temperature for doped samples as compared with pure BiPbSrCaCuO.Changes in superconducting properties of ZrO nanoparticle added Bi-2212 system were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]