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.