YBCO superconductor added with one-dimensional TiO2 nanostructures: Frequency dependencies of AC susceptibility, FC-ZFC magnetization, and pseudo-gap studies

•Effect of adding TiO2-NWs on the pinning properties of YBCO was performed.•Samples were synthesized via solid state reaction route.•TiO2-NWs addition did not affect the orthorhombic structure feature of YBCO.•TiO2-NWs reside at the grain’s boundaries and connect the superconducting grains.•TiO2-NWs enhanced the diamagnetic signal and energy activation value of YBCO. [Display omitted] This article reports the role of adding one-dimensional titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2-NWs, having 30 nm in diameter and some micrometers in length) on FC-ZFC magnetization, frequency-dependent AC susceptibility, and electrical measurements of the YBCO bulk system. The non-added (A0) and added TiO2-NWs samples (A1) were prepared by solid-state reaction route. TiO2-NWs did not affect the crystalline structure of YBCO. SEM examinations revealed that TiO2-NWs preferred to localize at the grain boundaries filling the pores existing between YBCO grains. FC-ZFC magnetization and frequency-dependent AC susceptibility analysis showed an enhancement of flux pinning properties with TiO2-NWs addition. TiO2-NWs addition affected also the electrical and pseudo-gap analysis of the samples.