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Wiley, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 9(98), p. 2760-2766, 2015

DOI: 10.1111/jace.13683

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A reliable method for recycling (RE)-Ba-Cu-O (RE: Sm, Gd, Y) bulk superconductors

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

This is the final version. It first appeared at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jace.13683/abstract. ; Single grain (RE)-Ba-Cu-O (RE: Sm, Gd, Y) high temperature superconductors are able to generate high magnetic fields. However, the relatively high cost of the raw materials and the low yield of the manufacturing process have impeded the development of practical applications of these materials to date. This article describes a simple, reliable and economical method of recycling failed bulk (RE)-Ba-Cu-O (RE: Sm, Gd, Y) samples. Sixty-four failed bulk samples, with diameters up to 31 mm, were recycled with a yield of 90%. The key innovation in this recycling process involves reintroducing the liquid phase into the melt process, which is normally lost during the primary peritectic processing of these materials. This enables the direct re-growth of failed samples from solid form without the need for re-grinding into powder. We also demonstrate that the superconducting performance and microstructure of the recycled samples is similar to that of the primary grown samples. ; We acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC grant ref.EP/K02910X/1) for financial support.