Nonlinear behavior of Tb4O7-modified ZnO-Pr6O11-based ceramics with high breakdown field

The effect of Tb4O7 on electrical behavior of the ZnO-Pr6O11-based varistor ceramics was investigated. Microstructural analysis indicated that the addition of Tb4O7 decreased average grain size from 3.6 to 3.2 μm and increased the sintered density from 5.58 to 5.68 g/cm3. As the amount of Tb4O7 increased, the breakdown field increased from 9393 to 12437 V/cm and the nonlinear coefficient increased from 50 to 65. The varistor ceramics added with 0.5 mol.% in the amount of Tb4O7 exhibited an excellent stability by exhibiting −0.1% in the variation rate of the breakdown field, 0% in the variation rate of the nonlinear coefficient, and 8.8% in the variation rate of the leakage current density for DC-accelerated aging stress of 0.85 E1 mA/115 °C/24 h.