ZnO varistors with high voltage gradient and low leakage current by doping rare-earth oxide

The surge arrester of 1000 kV gas-insulated substation (GIS) needs ZnO varistor with high voltage gradient to effectively improve the potential distribution along ZnO varistor column inside the metal-oxide surge arresters. In this paper, the electrical and structural parameters of ZnO varistors are changed by doping with some rare-earth oxides, and the mechanism which leads these changes is discussed. When rare-earth oxide additives are added into ZnO varistors, the growing speed is slowed down due to the stabilization of the new spinel phases formed in the grain-boundary by rare-earth oxide additives, then the size of ZnO grains is smaller, and the voltage gradient of varistor increases obviously. By adding suitable amount of oxides of metal Co and Mn, the leakage current can be effectively decreased and the nonlinearity coefficient increased. The novel ZnO varistor samples sintered with the optimal additives have a voltage gradient of 492 V/mm, and the nonlinearity coefficient of 76, but their leakage currents are only 1 mu A.