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Ge: the most efficient tetravalence electrical nonlinearity enhancer for ZnO base varistor ceramics

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Abstract

This study investigates the potential and efficiency of Ge as an electrical nonlinearity enhancer for ZnO-based varistor ceramics under low-temperature sintering conditions. For this purpose, 0–0.15 mol% GeO2-doped ZnO–Bi2O3–MnCO3 ceramics were prepared by a conventional solid-state process, followed by sintering at 875 °C for 4 h. Results show that GeO2 addition forms Bi12GeO20 at grain boundaries, which inhibits ZnO grain growth. Within the 0–0.15 mol% range, GeO2 significantly enhances the nonlinear coefficient (α) from 25.04 to 61.26 and increases the breakdown voltage (Eb) from 356.41 to 692.78 V/mm. Optimal electrical performance, with nonlinear coefficient α = 61.26, breakdown voltage ( Eb) = 548.25 V/mm, and low leakage current density (lL) = 4.48 μA/cm2), was obtained by adding 0.03 mol% GeO2. These findings confirm that Ge is by far the most effective tetravalence electrical nonlinearity enhancer for ZnO-based varistor ceramics at low sintering temperature. GeO2-doped ZnO–Bi2O3–MnCO3 ceramics, with simplified composition and low sintering temperatures, are promising for cost-effective low-voltage varistor applications.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this manuscript, no supplementary materials are involved. Raw/processed datasets are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia (Grant Number: 0406082434, 2025LHM05041) and funds from the National 973 Program (Grant Number: 2012CB722802). This work was also supported by the Key Research and Development Program and Achievement Transformation Project of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Grant Numbers: 2023YFHH0017 and 2023YFHH0026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, 014010, China

    Chenghao Cui, Ming Zhao, Miaomiao Chen, Hui Tao & Zhongwang Wu

  2. School of Rare Earth Industry, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, 014010, China

    Zhuocheng Liu

  3. College of Science, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, 014010, China

    Hua Chen, Yongsheng Du & Leibo Deng

Contributions

Chenghao Cui: methodology, material synthesis, investigation, formal analysis, original draft writing, visualization. Ming Zhao: resources, conceptualization, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, validation, writing—review and editing. Miaomiao Chen: material synthesis, investigation, data curation, visualization, validation. Zhuocheng Liu: project administration assistant, experimental validation. Hui Tao: material synthesis, data curation, microstructural characterization (SEM), dielectric spectroscopy measurement. Hua Chen: XRD refinement, crystallographic analysis. Yongsheng Du: electrical nonlinearity analysis. Leibo Deng: dielectric spectroscopy measurement supervision and data interpretation. Zhongwang Wu: resources, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ming Zhao.

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Cui, C., Zhao, M., Chen, M. et al. Ge: the most efficient tetravalence electrical nonlinearity enhancer for ZnO base varistor ceramics. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 36, 1232 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-025-15186-z

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