A Novel Process to Produce Amorphous Nanosized Boron Useful for MgB2 Synthesis

In this paper, we report a new synthesis route to produce boron powders characterized as being amorphous and having very fine particle size. This route has been developed to improve the performances of superconducting MgB2 powders, which can be directly synthesized from this nanostructured boron precursor by following the ex-situ or the in-situ PIT method during manufacturing of tapes, wires, and cables. All the procedure steps are explained, and the chemical-physical characterization of the boron powder, using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques, is reported. Furthermore, a comparison with commercial boron is given. Preliminary results of the magnetic and electrical characterization, such as critical temperature TC and transport critical current density JC t, for the MgB2 tape are reported and compared with those for the tape prepared with commercial boron.