Electrical properties and thermal sensitivity of Ti/Y modified CuO-based ceramic thermistors

Abstract

The Ti/Y modified CuO-based negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors, Cu0.988-2yY0.008TiyO (TYCO; y = 0.01, 0.015, 0.03, 0.05 and 0.07), were synthesized through a wet-chemical method followed by a traditional ceramic sintering technology. The related phase component and electrical properties were investigated. XRD results show that the TYCO ceramics have a monoclinic structure as that of CuO crystal. The TYCO ceramics can be obtained at the sintering temperature 970°C-990°C, and display the typical NTC characteristic. The NTC thermal-sensitive constants of TYCO thermistors can be adjusted from 1112 to 3700 K by changing the amount of Ti in the TYCO ceramics. The analysis of complex impedance spectra revealed that both the bulk effect and grain boundary effect contribute to the electrical behavior and the NTC effect. Both the band conduction and electron-hopping models are proposed for the conduction mechanisms in the TYCO thermistors.