Nowadays there is great progress in industrial scale production of high-temperature superconducting Bi-2223/Ag tapes, in order to improve high electrical current transport. The necessity to produce textured high-quality pieces (in tape or bulk formats) demands research directed to production of that phase from molten state. In this article we present a study on routes to Bi-2223/Ag processing that use decomposition followed by recrystallization of that phase. Such routes can lead to the increase of density and the improvement of the microstructure of the ceramic nucleus in Bi-2223/Ag tapes. The present results suggest that such decomposition procedure is highly dependent on the phase equilibrium Bi-2223/Ag + molten material and that new experiments are needed to optimize the recrystalization procedure and the Bi-2223/Ag solidified volume fraction in the products.
Generation of massive pieces; Bi-2223/Ag; sintering; decomposition; recrystallization
