Macrotexture Study of Non- and Sintered Pure Nb and Nb3Sn using Orientation Distribution Function

This research uses pellets of non- and sintered pure Nb and the superconducting intermetallic compound of Nb3Sn. Sintering was undertaken at 700 oC for 96 hours. The texture data were obtained by using XRD Brüker D8 Advance equipped with gonio-texture and interpreted into namely inverse pole figures, pole figures, and orientation distribution function (ODF). In general, the pole figure analysis indicates that sintering process can lead to a change in the crystal orientation distribution from symmetric or random orientation into preferred orientation. Uni-axial compacting pressure in samples prior to sintering favors the appearance of a preferred orientation on a specific direction. However, this texture is not only retained upon subsequent sintering, but can become much more pronounced or weaker due to the crystal growth occurring at elevated temperatures. The main feature of initial texture for pure compacted Nb obtained in this study is Brass, S, and Copper with Brass being the maximum, whereas Cube and Goss appear as minor components. Upon sintering, it has been found that S, Brass, and Copper retained as the dominant ones, with S has been developed and being the maximum. On the contrary, a significant change in texture upon sintering has been obtained for Nb3Sn, namely Copper, S and Brass components with minor Cube and Goss components for initial condition, and Copper, Goss and Brass with minor Cube and S components for sintered sample. It is noted that the Copper intensity of Nb3Sn decreases from 50.4 to 39.3 multiple of random distribution (m.r.d) for the initial and upon sintering conditions, respectively. Advanced Materials Research Vol. 896 (2014) pp 638-641 © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.896.638