Abstract
The effects of SiO2 nanowires on the superconducting properties of YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO) compound were studied Samples were synthesized in air using a standard solid state reaction technique by adding nanowires SiO2 up to 1wt.%. Phase analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD), microstructure investigation by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), critical current density dependence on applied magnetic field J(c)(H) and electrical resistivity as a function of temperature rho(T) were carried out to evaluate the relative performance of samples. We find that T-co does not change much (90.8-90.2 K) with the low concentration of SiO2 (<= 0.1 wt.%) and J(c)(H) is enhanced.