  Promising results reported in our previous works led us to think that
production of B powder plays a crucial role in MgB2 synthesis. A new method for
boron preparation has been developed in our laboratory. This particular process
is based on magnesiothermic reaction (Moissan process) with the addition of an
initial step that gives boron powder with nano-metric grain size. In this paper
we report our efforts regarding optimization of PIT method for these nanometric
powders and the resolution of problems previously highlighted such as the
difficulty in powder packaging and the high friction phenomena occurring during
cold working. This increases cracking during the tape and wire manufacturing
leading to its failure. Packaging problems are related to the amorphous nature
of boron synthesized in our laboratory, so a crystallization treatment was
applied to improve crystallinity of B powder. To prevent excessive friction
phenomena we synthesized non-stoichiometric MgB2 and using magnesium as
lubricant. Our goal is the Jc improvement, but a global physical-chemical
characterization was also made to analyze the improvement given by our
treatments: this characterization includes X-ray diffraction, resistivity vs.
temperature measurement, SEM image, besides magnetic and transport Jc
measurements.
