Improving Transport Properties of Bi-2223 Superconducting Tapes With the Optimization of Packing Atmosphere

Multifilamentary Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ (Bi-2223) high temperature superconducting tapes were fabricated by powder-in-tube process. During the precursor powder packing process, environment atmosphere was changed from pure oxygen to dry air and 7.5% O2 balanced with N2, with the oxygen partial pressure decreasing from 100% to 25% and 7.5%, respectively. The change of packing atmosphere obviously influenced the phase assemblage in the early stage of Bi-2223 phase formation process. Therefore, the chemical composition of obtained Bi-2223 phase as well as the content and distribution of secondary phases changed accordingly. Meanwhile, the changes of intergrain connections and the flux pinning properties were investigated based on the in-field critical current, $I_{c}$ – B measurements. Finally, attributed to the decreased oxygen partial pressure in packing atmosphere, the $I_{c}$ improvements of 25% at self-field and 0.6 T were obtained comparing with the tapes packed under pure oxygen. With further optimization of sintering process, the final $I_{c}$ of 116 A was achieved, which corresponded to the critical current density, $J_{c}$ of ∼21 kAcm−2.