SYNTHESIS OF ZNO NANOPARTICLES FOR VARISTOR APPLICATION USING ZN-SUBSTITUTED AEROSOL OT MICROEMULSION

This paper describes a new method for the synthesis of zinc oxide nano particles using ethanol-in-oil microemulsions with Zn-DEHSS (diethylhe xyl sulfosuccinate) as surfactant. The zinc oxide nanoparticles find a pplication in varistors and other functional devices. These particles have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, TEM, and BET surface are a. Microemulsion droplets were characterized by quasi elastic light sc attering (QELS). Varistors formed from doped zinc oxide nanoparticles finds application as low voltage surge devices with low leakage curren t and high coefficient of nonlinearity (alpha). In this paper, we have shown that the critical voltage of the varistor is related to the gra in size which is related to size of ZnO particles. The smaller ZnO par ticles lead to larger grain size, thereby lowering the critical voltag e. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.