Structural and Superconducting Properties of Thermal Treatment-Synthesised Bulk YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7−δ) Superconductor: Effect of Addition of SnO(2) Nanoparticles

YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7−δ) (Y-123) bulk superconductors with the addition of (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 wt.%) SnO(2) nanoparticles were synthesised via a thermal treatment method. The influence of SnO(2) addition on the superconducting properties by means of critical temperature, T(c), AC susceptibility, phase formation and microstructures, including its elemental composition analysis, were studied. Sharp superconducting transition, ∆T(c), and diamagnetic transition were obtained for all SnO(2)-added samples. It was observed that sample x = 0.4 with a Y-123 phase percentage of 95.8% gives the highest T(c), smallest ∆T(c), and the sharpest diamagnetic transition in the normalised susceptibility curves. The microstructure also showed an excess of Sn precipitates on the sample’s surface at x = 0.8 and above. As such, the best superconducting properties were observed at x = 0.4 SnO(2) addition inside the Y-123 host sample.