Study of Zinc Oxide Varistors by Incorporating Alkaline-Earth and Rare-Earth Metal Nanofillers

Abstract

This paper investigates recent developments in the field of zinc oxide var-istors’ development using nanocomposite materials. In addition, the materials under discussion have attracted academic and industrial interests due to their dramatic improvement in characteristics at nanofiller contents. Moreover, the varieties and forms of zinc oxide varistors, as well as the structure and properties of zinc oxide varistors, are discussed in this article. Zinc oxide varistors have traditionally been filled with synthetic or natural inorganic compounds to improve their properties or simply to save cost. In addition, this paper investigates the performance evaluation of zinc oxide varistors by incorporating alkaline-earth and rare-earth metal nanofillers. These applications require multifunctionality in a single material, which is rare in zinc oxide varistors. Zinc oxide varistors incorporating with other materials is a cost-effective technique to create multi-functional materials. The property improvement in nanocomposite systems, where the fillers typically have nanometre-scale dimensions, probably occurs with a tradeoff