Sustainable Recycling Strategy of Seed Crystal for Preparation of YBCO Bulk Superconductor

REBa2Cu3O7−δ (REBCO, where RE is rare earth elements or yttrium) high-temperature superconductors (HTS) have considerable potential for many magnetic applications as their high field trapping and critical current density capability. Seeding strategies have a vital and critical role to play for the controlled nucleation of REBCO crystals and their performance, including seed quality and material as well as seeding technology. Recently, a reliable seed crystal recovery strategy has been developed to enable reproducible and reliable growth of REBCO samples. Seed crystals are usually separated from the main crystal and discarded as ceramic waste due to the potential elemental contamination, despite they are not easy to prepare. In this study, we successfully produced multiple REBCO single grains under the identical heat treatment condition using a decent SmBCO single crystal as seed. By combining the buffer layer, the seed crystal was separated from the original bulk in a specific way and employed on the next sample, successful reprocesses were achieved in this study. The results show that this recycling strategy can be used as a reliable method to reduce the cost of REBCO bulk. Most importantly, the current progress in recycling seed crystal has expected the value of theoretically more reusability of seed crystal and observed high consistency among samples prepared from the same seed crystal, which may be riveting for the need for sample quality control and sustainable fabricating of batch preparation of REBCO bulks.