SynFoNY · Synthesis and Formulation of Nanoparticles for pinning in YBCO coated conductors

Synthesis and Formulation of Nanoparticles for pinning in YBCO coated conductors

People's concern about global warming and the rapid growth of the world population has prompted scientists to develop renewable electrical energy and to find new technologies with a minimum of carbon dioxide emissions. High-temperature superconducting technologies have the potential to transport electricity without resistance. However, the implementation of these high-temperature superconductors in power applications is constrained due to the presence and movement of vortices in the presence of a medium to high magnetic field. In this project, we focused on the improvement of the superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) properties by immobilizing the vortices via the incorporation of preformed double metal oxide nanocrystals as artificial pinning centers in the YBCO matrix. The chemical solution deposition approach was introduced to synthesize the high-quality superconducting nanocomposite thin films starting from nano-suspensions for the implementation of the YBCO coated conductors throughout the energy market. Both industrial (BASF SE, HTE GmbH, d-Nano GmbH) and academic partners (Ghent University, University of Turku) have worked on the development and fundamental understanding of new ink formulations for industrial superconductor production. The project named SynFoNY (Synthesis & Formulation for Nanoparticle pinning in YBCO) was supported by a European Industrial Doctorate grant, started in early 2017, and was set to enable the broader use of YBCO superconductors in a variety of challenging applications, such as generators for wind turbines. These were the objectives of SynFoNY: (1) Training of two ESRs on different technical and industrial aspects: - Research objective for ESR1: Industrial synthesis, formulation and incorporation of preformed bimetallic nanocrystals in YBCO precursor solutions for the development of superconducting nanocomposites. - Research objective for ESR2: product and process development of industrial scaled deposition of superconducting nanocomposite architectures and their in-depth microstructural and physical characterization. (2) The scalable development of nanocomposite architectures with tunable properties.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union