Wires of ZrH2-doped MgB2 material with the composition, Mg:ZrH2:B = (1−x):x:2 (x = 0%, 5%, 8%, 10%, 12%, 15%), were fabricated via the in situ powder-in-tube method by using low-C steel tubes as sheath materials. Samples were sintered at 700, 750, 800 and 900C for 2h in a flow of high-purity Ar. It was found that the amount of ZrB2 increased with the doping ratio, and the content of Fe2B increased with the sintering temperature. The critical current density of all the doped samples decreased with an increase in sintering temperature, but the optimum doping ratio increased correspondingly. Among all of the doped samples, the samples with x = 5 and 8% exhibited better JC properties at the sintering temperature of 700C, but the samples with x = 10, 12 and 15% exhibited higher JC values when sintered at 900C.

Effects of ZrH2 Doping and Sintering Temperature on the Critical Current Density of MgB2 Wires. H.L.Xu, Y.Feng, Z.Xu, C.S.Li, G.Yan, Y.F.Wu, Z.L.Chen, E.Mossang, A.Sulpice: Physica C, 2005, 426-431[2], 1244-8