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

In this study, the effect of palladium (II) chloride (PdCl2) addition on the structural, microstructural, and superconducting properties of Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi-2212) was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed Bi-2212 as the dominant phase in all samples. The incorporation of PdCl2 led to a reduction in both lattice parameters and unit cell volume. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed platy grains in PdCl2-added samples compared to the pure one. Both the onset transition temperature (Tc onset) and magnetic susceptibility transition temperature (Tcχ′) improved with PdCl2 addition. The 0.4 wt% PdCl2-added sample exhibited the highest Tc onset of 96 K and a zero-resistance transition temperature (Tc zero) of 77 K. AC susceptibility measurements showed that samples with x = 1.0 and 1.5 wt% PdCl2 exhibited the highest Tcχ′ of 86 K. The 0.4 wt% PdCl2-added sample also showed the highest intergrain loss peak temperature (Tp2), indicating enhanced flux pinning strength. PdCl2 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 PdCl2 addition may have induced defects that serve as effective flux pinning center of Bi-2212 superconductor.