Effects of Oxide-Modified Spherical ZnO on Electrical Properties of Ag/ZnO Electrical Contact Material

Abstract

Silver-zinc oxide (Ag/ZnO) electrical contact material is widely used as contacts of the medium duty switching devices. Effects of modified ZnO on properties of Ag/ZnO electrical contact material were investigated in this work. NiO and CuO were introduced to modify spherical ZnO by a chemical solution nano-coating method. Ag/ZnO contacts prepared using the modified spherical ZnO were produced by powder metallurgy (PM) method in a muffle furnace in temperature ranges from 750 to 900 °C. Results show that electrical conductivity, stability of relative density, and Vickers’ hardness of Ag/ZnO electrical contact material can be improved by the addition of NiO because of the formation of NiO solid solution Zn0.2Ni0.8O. The addition of CuO to Ag/ZnO electrical contact material makes arcing energy and mass loss lower. Since this is attractive for a longer service life, using NiO and CuO co-modified ZnO as a second phase may be a promising way to improve properties of Ag/ZnO electrical contact material. Hence, the presented results could also be useful for the design of a new Ag/ZnO electrical contact material.