We study the combined influence of calcination and sintering temperature on the microstructure, superconducting and pinning properties of Bi 1.6 Pb 0.4 Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10+θ (Bi-2223) prepared by the sol-gel route. Using several characterization techniques, including X-rays diffractometry and electrical transport measurements, we find that the powders calcined at 820 °C often result in a crystal higher critical current density (J c ) compared those calcined at 830 °C. The powder calcined at 820 °C and sintered at 850 °C (Bi-2223 820 850 ) showed the best grain morphology and the largest magnetic hysteresis loop and a J c equal to 12.94 × 10 5 A/cm 2 , comparable to the best results found in the literature for Bi-2223. The enhancement in J c for Bi-2223 820 850 seems to be due to improved grain structure rather than creation of effective pinning centers, because the scaling behavior of flux pinning force densities indicates that the main pinning mechanism for all samples is normal point pinning.
