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The Effect of Sintering Temperature on the Microstructure and Electrical Properties of ZnO–Bi2O3 Varistor Ceramics

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Abstract

The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and electrical properties of ZnO–Bi2O3 varistor ceramics was studied in the present work. Results demonstrate that the Bi-rich phase ZnBi38O60 is generated at the ZnO grain boundaries in the prepared varistor ceramics over a range of 850–1000°C. As the sintering temperature increases, the Bi-rich insulator layer tends to widen, and the average grain size increases to 13.22 μm. The switching field, breakdown strength (\(E_{{1{\text{mA}}}}\)), and nonlinear coefficient (α) increase, while the leakage current density (\(J_{L}\)) decreases, because of an increase in barrier height (\(\varphi_{B}\)). In addition, the sintering temperature promotes a decrease in the dielectric constant (\(\varepsilon_{a}\)) and an increase in dielectric loss. The ZnO–Bi2O3 varistor ceramic sintered at 1000°C exhibits excellent overall electrical properties, with a switching field of 228.04 V/mm, \(E_{{1{\text{mA}}}}\) of 379.76 V/mm, α of 6.02, \(J_{L}\) of 140 μA/cm2, \(\varphi_{B}\) of 0.39 eV, and \(\varepsilon_{a}\) of 172.87 at 1 kHz.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Doctoral Fund Project of Henan Polytechnic University (Grant No. B2020-45 and Grant No. B2019-20), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Universities of Henan Province (Grant No. NSFRF210451), the Young Core Instructor Foundation of Henan Polytechnic University (Grant No. 2022XQG-12 and 2023XQG-10), and the Henan Province Scientific and Technological Project (Grant No. 222102230026).

Funding

The Funding was provided by Doctoral Fund Project of Henan Polytechnic University (B2020-45, Jingjing Tian; B2019-20, Heng Tian), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Universities of Henan Province (NSFRF210451, Jingjing Tian), the Young Core Instructor Foundation of Henan Polytechnic University (2022XQG-12, Jingjing Tian; 2023XQG-10, Heng Tian), and the Henan Province Scientific and Technological Project (222102230026, Jingjing Tian).

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  1. School of Physics and Electronic Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, China

    Jingjing Tian, Yelin Wu, Heng Tian, Yonghao Xu, Pengzhen Lu, Jiayang Zhao & Bo Zhang

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Tian, J., Wu, Y., Tian, H. et al. The Effect of Sintering Temperature on the Microstructure and Electrical Properties of ZnO–Bi2O3 Varistor Ceramics. J. Electron. Mater. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-024-11135-4

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