Structural, electrical transport and magnetic properties of palladium (II) chloride added Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2CaCu2O8 superconductor

In this study, the effect of palladium (II) chloride (PdCl 2 ) addition on the structural, microstructural, and superconducting properties of Bi 1.6 Pb 0.4 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 (Bi-2212) was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed Bi-2212 as the dominant phase in all samples. The incorporation of PdCl 2 led to a reduction in both lattice parameters and unit cell volume. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed platy grains in PdCl 2 -added samples compared to the pure one. Both the onset transition temperature ( T c onset ) and magnetic susceptibility transition temperature ( T cχ′ ) improved with PdCl 2 addition. The 0.4 wt% PdCl 2 -added sample exhibited the highest T c onset of 96 K and a zero-resistance transition temperature ( T c zero ) of 77 K. AC susceptibility measurements showed that samples with x = 1.0 and 1.5 wt% PdCl 2 exhibited the highest T cχ′ of 86 K. The 0.4 wt% PdCl 2 -added sample also showed the highest intergrain loss peak temperature ( T p2 ), indicating enhanced flux pinning strength. PdCl 2 addition influenced crystallite size, which contributed to the improved superconducting performance of Bi-2212 phase. These results demonstrated that the decreased crystallite size due to the PdCl 2 addition may have induced defects that serve as effective flux pinning center of Bi-2212 superconductor.