Performance of Titanium-Oxide/Polymer Insulation in Bi-2212/Ag-alloy Round Wire Wound Superconducting Coils

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 properties measurement, and transport critical current (Ic) properties measurement. About 29% of the insulation by weight is polymer. When the Bi-2212/Ag wire is full 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 >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 um 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.

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