Bulk Magnesium Diboride, Mechanical and Superconducting Properties

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a hot isostatic pressing method to produce dense bulk magnesium diboride with excellent superconducting and mechanical properties, scalable to complex shapes.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable HIPing process for bulk MgB2 with improved density, superconducting transition, and mechanical characteristics compared to prior methods.

Findings

Achieved fully dense MgB2 samples up to 30 mm in diameter.

Elastic constants close to theoretical predictions for dense samples.

Enhanced flux pinning due to microstructural properties.

Abstract

Hot Isostatic Pressing was applied to synthesize bulk samples with diameter up to 30 mm starting with Alfa Aesar magnesium diboride powder. HIPing at 2 kbar, 1000 C with cooling under pressure (DMCUP cycle) resulted in a fully dense (or low porosity) material with a sharp superconducting transition and critical current comparable with the best reported. Elastic constants were measured using method of resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. Their values for most dense samples (bulk modulus 142.5 GPa and Young's modulus 272.5 GPa) are close to theoretically predicted values for solid magnesium diboride. Porosity is resposible for lower values of elastic constants. Fracture toughness is evaluated based on measurements of microhardness and elastic constants. Upper critical field and irreversibility field are comparable with data for samples sintered at 3 GPa. Microstructural propeties of HIPed smaples are responsible for enhanced flux pinning. Method allows scaling of the size of the samples and manufacture of complex shapes.