Inhibition grain growth and electrical properties by adding In2O3 to SnO2-Co3O4-Ta2O5 ceramics

Abstract

In this contribution the effect of In2O3 additions on the microstructure, physical, and electrical properties of the SnO2-Co3O4-Ta2O5 ceramic system was investigated. Since the effect of In2O3 has been studied typically at low levels, special attention has been paid to the effect of high levels (1 and 2 mol % In2O3) in the ceramics. Results show that up to 0.1 mol % In2O3, an increase of indium oxide content is correlated with grain size reduction and an increase of the nonlinearity coefficient (a) and breakdown voltage (EB), producing an augmentation by a factor of 2 in the nonlinearity coefficient and an increment by a factor of 8 in the breakdown voltage. However, shrinkage () and measured density are not influenced by the addition of indium oxide. For samples with 1 and 2 mol % In2O3, in non-calcined condition, In2O3 is present with cubic structure. However, in calcined specimens, In2O3 is not detected anymore and SnO2-crystal structure undergoes a change from tetragonal to cubic. These ceramic samples exhibit high resistivity, behaving like dielectric materials.