Zinc oxide-praseodymia semiconducting varistors having a powerful surge suppression capability

• Pr/Co/Cr/Y/Mg co-doped ZnO–PrO1.83-based semiconducting ceramics with simple microstructure.
• Pr/Co/Cr/Y/Mg co-doped ZnO–PrO1.83-based semiconducting ceramics with good varistor properties.
• Pr/Co/Cr/Y/Mg co-doped ZnO–PrO1.83-based semiconducting varistors with excellent surge suppression capability.

We introduced the varistor having more powerful surge suppression capability. This research focuses on the effect of sintering time on electrical properties and pulse current degradation of Pr/Co/Cr/Y/Mg co-doped zinc oxide varistors for surge suppression. With increasing sintering time, the breakdown field decreased from 2768 to 1680 V/cm, and the nonlinear coefficient decreased from 57.7 to 29.3. Considering pulse current, a higher nonlinear coefficient led to the lower clamp voltage ratio. Therefore, the sample sintered for 1 h exhibited the best clamp characteristics, in which the clamp voltage ratio was in the range of K = 1.52–1.77 for pulse currents of 1–10 A and K = 2.04–3.43 for pulse currents of 400–2500 A. Considering pulse absorption capability, the sample sintered for 3 h exhibited the strongest electrical stability; − 3.9% in ∆E1mA/cm2 / E1mA/cm2 and − 6.9% ∆α1 / α1 after application of a pulse current of 2500 A.

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