Performance of titanium oxide–polymer insulation in superconducting coils made of Bi-2212/Ag-alloy round wire

Abstract

Conductor insulation is one of the key components needed to make Ag-alloy clad Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (Bi-2212/Ag) superconducting round wire (RW) successful for high field magnet applications, as dielectric standoff and high winding current densities (Jw) directly depend on it. In this study, a TiO2–polymer insulation coating developed by nGimat LLC was applied to test samples and a high field test coil. The insulation was investigated by differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dielectric property measurement, and transport critical current (Ic) property measurement. About 29% of the insulation by weight is polymer. When the Bi-2212/Ag wire is fully heat treated, this decomposes with slow heating to 400 ° C in pure O2. After the full reaction, we found that the TiO2 did not degrade the critical current properties, adhered well to the conductor, and provided a breakdown voltage of more than 100 V, which allowed the test coil to survive quenching in 31.2 T background field, while providing a 2.6 T field increment. For Bi-2212/Ag RW with a typical diameter of 1.0–1.5 mm, this ∼15 μm thick insulation allows a very high coil packing factor of ∼0.74, whereas earlier alumino-silicate braid insulation only allows packing factors of 0.38–0.48.