Studies on room temperature electrochemical oxidation and its effect on the transport properties of TBCCO films

A novel room temperature electrochemical process for the synthesis of single-phase Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 (TBCCO/Tl-2223) superconducting films has been developed. Electrochemical parameters were optimized by studying linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) for the deposition of Tl-Ba-Ca-Cu alloy at room temperature. The superconducting films of the TBCCO were obtained by two oxidation techniques. In the first technique, the electrodeposited Tl-Ba-Ca-Cu alloyed films were oxidized at various temperatures in flowing oxygen atmosphere. In the second technique, stoichiometric electrocrystallization to get Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 (Tl-2223) was completed by electrochemically intercalating oxygen species into Tl-Ba-Ca-Cu alloy at room temperature for various lengths of time. The oxygen content in the samples was varied by varying the electrochemical oxidation period, and the changes in the crystal structure, superconducting transition temperature (T-c) and critical current density (J(c)) were recorded. The high temperature furnace oxidation technique was replaced by the room temperature electrochemical oxidation technique. The dependence of superconducting parameters on oxygen content is correlated with structure-property relations.