Influence of disorder on the in-field Jc of MgB2 wires using highly active pyrene

In this work, we report on significantly enhanced critical current density (Jc) in MgB2 superconductor that was easily obtained by doping with a hydrocarbon, highly active pyrene (C16H10), and using a sintering temperature as low as ~600 °C. The processing advantages of the C16H10 additive include production of a highly active carbon (C) source, an increased level of disorder, and the introduction of small grain size, resulting in enhancement of Jc. ©2008 American Institute of Physics