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Study on the high impulse current withstand properties and failure mechanism of ZnO varistors with different Bi2O3 content

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Abstract

In this work, the effect of Bi2O3 content on the microstructure, mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of ZnO varistors was investigated, and the high impulse current withstand properties and failure mechanism of ZnO varistors was discussed in detail. When content of Bi2O3 equaled to 0.75 mol%, the varistors possessed excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, where the value of σf and Ef were 130.77 MPa and 69.60 GPa, KT and λT were 6.504 W·(m·°C)−1 and 7.00 × 10–6 °C−1, E1mA, α, JL, and K were 272.13 V·mm–1, 55.96, 1.55 μA·cm–2, and 1.74, respectively, being due to the highest density and finest uniform grain size distribution. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) showed that the thermal stress decreased first and then increased with the increase of Bi2O3 content, where Ef and λT played a more important role than KT. And the loaded impulse current Ip can generate Joule heat to improve the temperature of ZnO varistors, thereby increasing the thermal stress and promoting the migration of dopants ions from ZnO to the Bi2O3 crystal lattice. Hence, JL increased and U1mA reduced, which further increased the thermal effect generated by Ip. When the value of Ip equaled to 100 kA, high temperature produced a loose microstructure and broken grains originated from the strong thermal stress. Meanwhile, the enhanced migration increased JL (3.77 μA·cm−2) and decreased U1mA (4.93 kV), resulting in a critical value of ΔU1 mA (9.88%). A further increase in Ip led to the failure of ZnO varistors.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by Science and Technology Project of the State Grid Corporation of China under grant 5216AF210004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China

    Bo-wen Wang & Jia-zheng Lu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention & Reduction for Power Grid Transmission and Distribution Equipment, State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company Disaster Prevention and Reduction Center, Changsha, 410129, China

    Bo-wen Wang, Zhi-yao Fu & Zheng-long Jiang

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Peng-zhao Gao

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by B-wW and P-zG. The first draft of the manuscript was written by P-zG and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Wang, Bw., Lu, Jz., Gao, Pz. et al. Study on the high impulse current withstand properties and failure mechanism of ZnO varistors with different Bi2O3 content. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 25446–25462 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09249-8

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