Microstructural and magnetic properties of YBCO nanorods: synthesized by template growth method

Superconductivity in a low dimensional structure is an interesting phenomenon both from fundamental and application point of view. The present study proposes a novel method of fabricating single crystalline YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO/Y123) nanorods from the nitrate solution containing Yttrium (Y), Barium (Ba) and copper (Cu) ions in stoicheometric proportion to that of Y123. The nitrate solution was soaked into cellulose and then was heated to a phase formation temperature of 880 degrees C with a dwell of 6 and 24 hours followed by oxygenation for 100 hours at 460 degrees C. Fine particles of YBCO, sintered together to form long (> 100 mu m) thread like structure with a diameter of similar to 2 mu m were observed. At higher magnification nano-rods with similar to 50-100 nm diameters and length of similar to 500 nm were observed for 24 hours heat treated sample. Selective area electron diffraction was done on these nanorods and was compared with the simulated pattern of YBCO. A broad diamagnetic, transition in magnetic susceptibility below 90 K indicates the presence of superconductivity. M-H loops recorded at 77 K on these samples indicate superconducting behavior at low fields and paramagnetic behavior at high fields. M-H loops above superconducting transition (90 K-300 K) unveil the ferromagnetism in these samples.