The effect of the starting powders particle size on the electrical properties of sintered Co doped ZnO varistors

Pure and Co doped zinc oxide nanopowders have been synthesized by sol–gel route. The obtained powders, after calcination in air at 550, 650, 750 and 850 °C, were consolidated and sintered using microwaves. The effect of sintering temperature on the density and electrical properties was investigated. The best characteristics are obtained using a sintering temperature equal to 1,075 °C. The powders and sintered samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, microstructure images, density and electrical measurements. The studied nanopowders have: a density of 5.22 (g/cm3), a breakdown voltage of 446.5 V/mm and a coefficient of non-linearity of 11.48 for ZnO doped with 7 mol% Co, and a density of 5.19 (g/cm3), a breakdown voltage of 292.5 V/mm and a non-linearity coefficient of 11.62 for ZnO doped with 5 mol% Co. The XRD results indicate that pure and Co doped ZnO powders are solid solutions crystallizing in pure würtzite structure, and consisted of a mixture of nanoparticles with an average grain size between 36 and 210 nm. The grain size decreases with increasing Co concentration and reaches its lowest value at 7 mol% Co and increases with increasing temperature. On the other hand the increase of Co concentration leads to a decrease of the porosity and an increase of the density of samples sintered at 1,070 °C and leads also to an increase of the electric field (E) in the non-linear area. The samples of 5 mol% Co sintered at 1,075 °C, show that the non-linear coefficient α decreases by increasing of calcined temperature, therefore increases with decreasing of grain and particle sizes.