• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.6 s.277
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• pp.437-442
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• 2005

We fabricated BSCCO-2212 (2212) bulk superconductor by melt casting process, and evaluated the dependence of the critical properties on the temperature and cooling .ate of mold and the pouring methods of melt. It was observed that the critical current (Ic) of 2212 was significantly dependent on the pre-heating temperature of the mold. At the pre-heating temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ followed by air cooling condition, Ic of 48 A at 77 K was obtained which was higher than others processed at different temperatures. In addition, the Ic improved to 132 A when tilt casting method was applied. The improved Ic is probably due to the fact that the tilt casting reduced a turbulent flow of the melt during casting causing less porosity and more homogeneous microsructure. Critical temperature was measured to be 87-89 K after the first heat treatment and it improved to 90-91 K when subsequently heat treated at $650^{\circ}C$ in a nitrogen atmosphere. This improvement was considered to be due to an optimization of the oxygen content in the range of 8.16-8.2.