Biological Network Mediated and Transient Liquid Assisted Growth of High Performance Superconducting Tapes

Objective

BioNetTLAG aims at developing an advanced methodology to increase the present performances of high temperature superconductors (HTS) prepared from low-cost chemical solution deposition (CSD) methods and under the fast production speed enabled by transient liquid assisted growth (TLAG), to finally boost the market adoption of this methodology. This would expand the currently niche and expensive HTS market, which would help meet the ambitious renewable energy objectives outlined in the EU Green Deal, the Horizon Europe Missions and the UNESCO goals in a timely manner. The reason why CSD-TLAG is not yet a widespread industrial technique is that it is difficult to control the solution chemistry and the carbon removal during the thermal treatments, in order to avoid secondary phases during the ultra-fast growth, which then limit current percolation in the superconducting film. Thus, its compatibility with thick HTS films on commercial flexible metallic substrates has not yet been proven. BioNetTLAG aims to overcome this limitation by developing a new chemical solution using metal salts of dicarboxylic amino acids. Besides being compatible with greener solvents, their high metal coordination capability per carbon content will create a network of inter-metallic bonds in low-carbon solutions, which will maintain the atomic homogeneity and atomic-level control required throughout the fast growth. Advanced in-situ analyses (looking for the first time at both crystalline and amorphous phases and from deposition to growth) will correlate solution chemistry with electrical properties, while enabling faster optimization of the processing parameters that will lead to higher performances. BioNetTLAG also contributes to the transfer of knowledge of HTS industry experience of the fellow to the host group, and to the strengthening of her soft and technical skills in in-situ analyses and automated data processing, that will help turn her into a leading figure in her field.