Improvement of sintering,nonlinear electrical,and dielectric properties of ZnO-based varistors doped with TiO2

The effects of TiO2 on sintering and nonlinear electrical properties of（98.5-x）ZnO–0.5MnO2–0.5Co2O3-0.5Bi2O3–xTiO2（x = 0.3,0.5,0.7,0.9 mol%） ceramic varistors prepared by the ceramic technique are investigated in this work.The optimum sintering temperature of the prepared samples is deduced by determining the firing shrinkage and water absorption percentages.The optimum sintering temperature is found to be 1200℃,at which each of the samples shows a maximum firing shrinkage and minimum water absorption.Also minimum water absorption appears in a sample of x = 0.9 mol%.Higher sintering temperature and longer sintering time give rise to a reduction in bulk density due to the increased amount of porosity between the large grains of ZnO resulting from the rapid grain growth induced by the liquid phase sintering.The crystal size of ZnO decreases with increasing TiO2 doping.The addition of TiO2 improves the nonlinear coefficient and attains its maximum value at x = 0.7 mol% of TiO2,further addition negatively affects it.A decrease in capacitance consequently in the dielectric constant is recorded with increasing the frequency in a range of 30 kHz–200 kHz.The temperature and composition dependences of the dielectric constant and AC conductivity are also studied.The increase of temperature raises the dielectric constant because it increases ionic response to the field at any particular frequency.

Enhanced giant dielectric properties and improved nonlinear electrical response in acceptor-donor (Al^(3+), Ta^(5+))-substituted CaCu_(3)Ti_(4)0_(12) ceramics

The giant dielectric bchavior of CaCu_(3)Ti_(4)0_(12)(CCTO)has been widely investigated owing to its potential applications in electronics;however,the loss tangent(tan8)of this material is too large for many applications.A partial substitution of CCTO ceramics with either Al^(3+) or Ta^(5+)-ions generally results in poorer nonlinear properties and an associated increase in tan8(to~0.29-1.15).However,first-principles calculations showed that self-charge compensation occurs between these two dopant ions when co-doped into Tit sites,which can improve the electrical properties of the grain boundary(GB).Surprisingly,in this study,a greatly enhanced breakdown electric field(~200--6588 V/cm)and nonlinear coefficient(-4.8-15.2)with a significantly reduced tan8(~0.010--0.036)were obtained by simultaneous partial substitution of CCTO with acceptor-donor(Al^(3+),Ta^(5+))dopants to produce(Al^(3+),Ta^(5+))-CCTO ceramics.The reduced tan8 and improved nonlinear properties were attributed to the synergistic effects of the co-dopants in the doped CCTO structure.The signifcant reduction in the mean grain size of the(Al^(3+),Ta^(5+))-CCTO ceramics compared to pure CCTO was mainly because of the Ta^(5+)-ions.Accordingly,the increased GB density due to the reduced grain size and the larger Schottky barrier height(Ф_(b))at the GBs of the co-doped CCTO ceramics were the main reasons for the greatly increased GB resistance,improved nonlinear properties,and reduced tan8 values compared to pure and single-doped CCTO.In addition,high dielectric constant values(ε'≈(0.52-2.7)×10^(4))were obtained.A fine-grained microstructure with highly insulating GBs was obtained by Ta doping,while co-doping with Ta^(5+) and Al^(3+ )resulted in a high Ф_(b).The obtained results are expected to provide useful guidelines for developing new giant dielectric ceramics with excellent dielectric properties.