Characterization of superconducting properties of BSCCO powder prepared by attrition milling

The nonconventional technique of attrition milling has been used to produce superconducting BSCCO powder from the starting powders of oxides and carbonates of Bi, Sr, Ca and Cu. This process shows a drastic reduction in processing time by 80% from the conventional solid-state reaction. The completion of the reaction was determined by x-ray diffraction of the milled powder. The superconducting property characterization was done for the critical transition temperature and the critical current density of the processed powder by magnetic methods. The attrition milled powder shows a Tc of about 87 K after two high temperature treatments for 60 h and Jc of the order of 106 A cm−2 at 4 K. The superconducting properties of the processed powder are discussed in the framework of the Bean model.