The Effect of Diluted Water Treatments on the Superconducting Properties of $\hbox{MgB}_{2}$

To examine the effect of diluted water treatments on the superconducting properties of MgB
₂
, MgB
₂
powders were prepared by mixing with a series of diluted water (water-ethanol mixture). XRD analyses were carried out to investigate the phases of the diluted water-treated MgB
₂
powders. Both the isothermal magnetizations
M
(
H
) of the series of samples at fixed temperature and
M
(
T
) in fixed field, employing a PPMS-9 (Quantum Design), were measured. The degradation of the superconductivity of MgB
₂
by the diluted water treatments was observed. The diluted water-treated MgB
₂
powders have shown reduced superconductivity as the water concentration in the diluted water increases.