3D printing of YBCO-based superconducters

• Autor(a) principal: Silveira, Maria Teresa Oliveira Pulquério de
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/151316
• topic: YBCO; 3D Printing; Recycling; Doping; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais

The importance superconductors have in energy applications and their high fabrication cost led to the necessity of developing a recycling method to reduce their environment footprint. Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBCO), a well known superconductor, was chosen to test the method. Doping with Ca, Fe and graphene was also attempted to improve its superconducting properties. For the synthesis of YBCO, conditions such as the influence of sintering time and temperature and the influence of milling time were tested. Optimal conditions for the synthesis of superconducting YBCO were not achieved, probably due to a short sintering time. The recycling process was divided into two steps: sintering at 900 °C for 16 hours and then milling for 180 minutes. 3D printing was tested for both synthesized and recycled powders. The elements used to dope the YBCO at the tested concentrations did not show superconducting properties. The properties of synthesized, recycled and doped YBCO were evaluated using scanning electron microscope imaging, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, electric measurements and levitation tests. Longer sintering times and different doping concentrations should be tested in future works to achieve better superconducting properties.