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The effect of Mn3O4 addition on microhardness, microstructure and electrical properties of vanadium oxide doped zinc oxide varistor ceramics is systematically investigated. The Vicker's microhardness HV has decreased with increasing the amount of Mn3O4. Also, the average grain size has decreased from 27.51 μm to 19.55 μm with increasing the amount of Mn3O4 up to 0.50 mol%, whereas an increase in Mn3O4 up to 0.75 mol% has caused the average grain size to increase and then it decreases with increasing Mn3O4 from 0.75 mol% to 1.00 mol%. The sintered density has decreased from 5.38 g/cm3 to 5.31 g/cm3 with increasing the amount of Mn3O4. The varistor ceramic modified with 0.50 mol% Mn3O4 has exhibited excellent nonlinear properties, with 16.29 for the nonlinear coefficient and 441.9 μA/cm2 for the leakage current density. Furthermore, the sample doped with 0.50 mol% Mn3O4 has been found to possess donor density as 0.77×1018 cm-3 and 0.916 eV barrier height.


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Microhardness, microstructure and electrical properties of ZVM ceramics

Show Author's information Abdel-Mageed H. KHAFAGYaSanaa M. EL-RABAIEbMohamed T. DAWOUDb( )M. T. ATTIAb
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Menufiya University, Shebin El-Koom 32511, Egypt
Physics and Engineering Mathematics Department, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menufiya University, Menouf 32952, Egypt

Abstract

The effect of Mn3O4 addition on microhardness, microstructure and electrical properties of vanadium oxide doped zinc oxide varistor ceramics is systematically investigated. The Vicker's microhardness HV has decreased with increasing the amount of Mn3O4. Also, the average grain size has decreased from 27.51 μm to 19.55 μm with increasing the amount of Mn3O4 up to 0.50 mol%, whereas an increase in Mn3O4 up to 0.75 mol% has caused the average grain size to increase and then it decreases with increasing Mn3O4 from 0.75 mol% to 1.00 mol%. The sintered density has decreased from 5.38 g/cm3 to 5.31 g/cm3 with increasing the amount of Mn3O4. The varistor ceramic modified with 0.50 mol% Mn3O4 has exhibited excellent nonlinear properties, with 16.29 for the nonlinear coefficient and 441.9 μA/cm2 for the leakage current density. Furthermore, the sample doped with 0.50 mol% Mn3O4 has been found to possess donor density as 0.77×1018 cm-3 and 0.916 eV barrier height.

Keywords: microstructure, electrical properties, ceramics, varistor, Mn3O4 doped ZnO–V2O5 varistor

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Publication history

Received: 28 May 2014
Revised: 26 June 2014
Accepted: 06 July 2014
Published: 30 November 2014
Issue date: December 2014

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Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.

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