Modification of electrical and surface properties of V2O3 multilayer films on resin-impregnated highly oriented pyrolytic graphite composite substrates by shrinkage stress relaxation with chemical additives

• Effects of chemical additives on intrinsic properties of V2O3 films were studied.
• Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrates were modified using resins.
• The V2O3 films on HOPG substrates improved the surface and adhesive properties.
• Influence of resins on shrinkage stress relaxation of the V2O3 films was discussed.
• The V2O3 films appear to be a linearly sensitive semiconducting resistor.

We investigate the effects of pre-filled acrylic resins in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrates on the electrical and interfacial surface characteristics of multilayer films composed of a hexagonal V2O3 crystalline phase created by a sol–gel dip-coating process. The films on the resin-embedded HOPG substrates had mud-like shrinkage crack patterns along the grain boundary, with an exfoliated ratio of 0.79%, a thickness increase of 36.79% and a grain size decrease of 21.22%, compared with those of the non-impregnated sample, without changing the intrinsic electrical properties of HOPG. We attribute these results mainly to the use of resins containing hydroxyl groups, which relieve non-uniform drying stresses of the films.