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The Study of Barium Titanate Addition on Microstructure and Electrical
Properties of Zinc Oxide-based Varistor Ceramic
Siti Noradilah Binti Senin
Supervisor: Dr. Mohd Sabri Bin Mohd Ghazali
Co-Supervisor: Puan Hasiah Binti Salleh
Bachelor of Applied Science (Electronics and Instrumentation Physics)
School of Ocean Engineering
Zinc oxide (ZnO) based varistor ceramics are nonlinear ceramic resistors commonly
used to protect electronic circuits against overvoltage. It has good electrical
characteristics and high energy handling capabilities. In this study, ZnO is added with
3 wt.%, 6 wt.%, and 9 wt.% of barium titanate (BaTiO3) in order to elucidate the
effect of the additives on the performance of ZnO based varistor ceramics. BaTiO3 is
a ceramic material with a perovskite structure. The ZnO-BaTiO3 based varistor
ceramics are prepared via solid state reaction method and undergoes sintering
temperature at 900 ℃, 1100 ℃ and 1300 ℃ for 45 minutes. From the XRD and EDX
analysis, samples show presence of primary and secondary phases of the compound.
SEM image shows an improvement of the microstructure with the increase in wt.% of
BaTiO3 and sintering temperature. Thus, improving the nonlinear electrical properties
of ZnO-BaTiO3 based varistor ceramics.
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