Facile fabrication of nano-composited Y–Ba–Cu–O single-grain superconductor using raw metallic oxides

• Nano-composited Y–Ba–Cu–O single-grain superconductor was fabricated using raw metallic oxides.
• No precursor powder is used, so the process flow is much simplified and the experimental efficiency is advanced.
• The sample exhibits homogeneous distribution of nano-sized Y-211 inclusions in microstructure.
• The sample exhibits higher Jc performance of 6.24 × 104 A/cm2 in self field at 77 K.

Nano-composited Y–Ba–Cu–O (YBCO) single-grain superconductor has been facilely fabricated using raw metallic oxides. In this new method, a solid source pellet (SSP) of composition nano-Y2O3 + BaO + CuO + 1wt.%CeO2 and a liquid source pellet (LSP) of composition Yb2O3 + 10BaO + 16CuO are employed. Because the step of precursor powder synthesis in the conventional technique can be omitted, so the whole process flow is much simplified and the experimental efficiency is advanced. Experimental results indicate that, the sample exhibits homogeneous distribution of nano-sized Y2BaCuO5 (Y-211) inclusions in microstructure, and also a Jc performance of 6.24 × 104 A/cm2 in self field at 77 K, which is about 22% higher than that observed in conventional infiltration processed sample. Consequently, this study supplies a practical method for fabricating nano-composited YBCO bulk superconductor with high performance.