{"title":"The impact of dispersants on the electrical performance consistency of NTC thermistors","authors":"Chong Wang, Wei Ma, Junchang Wang, Shuangjiang He, Xiao Zhang, Sen Liang","doi":"10.1007/s10854-024-13796-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The consistency of electrical properties is an important factor for the industrial applications of negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors. Spinel-type NTC thermistors typically consist of several transition metal elements. However, variations in the fabrication process can compromise the uniformity of these elemental components, resulting in electrical properties. This study investigates the impact of adding dispersants on the consistency of the microstructure and electrical properties of the Mn–Fe–Co–Zn–O-based NTC thermistors. Thermistors prepared using a solid-state process exhibited a more uniform distribution of elements when two dispersants ammonium citrate and polyether P123 were incorporated during the ball milling stage. The coefficients of variation of room-temperature resistivity (ρ<sub>25</sub>) and material constants (B<sub>25/50</sub>) for samples prepared without dispersants were 17.433% and 0.667%, respectively. In contrast, samples prepared with dispersants exhibited coefficients of variation ranging from 7.763 to 11.796% for ρ25 and 0.299% to 0.392% for B<sub>25/50</sub>. This demonstrates a more uniform distribution of ρ<sub>25</sub> and B<sub>25/50</sub> following the addition of dispersants. Therefore, the use of dispersants enhances material’s compositional organization, leading to improved consistency in its electrical properties. These findings have significant implications for the development and application of NTC thermistors.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10854-024-13796-7","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The consistency of electrical properties is an important factor for the industrial applications of negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors. Spinel-type NTC thermistors typically consist of several transition metal elements. However, variations in the fabrication process can compromise the uniformity of these elemental components, resulting in electrical properties. This study investigates the impact of adding dispersants on the consistency of the microstructure and electrical properties of the Mn–Fe–Co–Zn–O-based NTC thermistors. Thermistors prepared using a solid-state process exhibited a more uniform distribution of elements when two dispersants ammonium citrate and polyether P123 were incorporated during the ball milling stage. The coefficients of variation of room-temperature resistivity (ρ25) and material constants (B25/50) for samples prepared without dispersants were 17.433% and 0.667%, respectively. In contrast, samples prepared with dispersants exhibited coefficients of variation ranging from 7.763 to 11.796% for ρ25 and 0.299% to 0.392% for B25/50. This demonstrates a more uniform distribution of ρ25 and B25/50 following the addition of dispersants. Therefore, the use of dispersants enhances material’s compositional organization, leading to improved consistency in its electrical properties. These findings have significant implications for the development and application of NTC thermistors.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics is an established refereed companion to the Journal of Materials Science. It publishes papers on materials and their applications in modern electronics, covering the ground between fundamental science, such as semiconductor physics, and work concerned specifically with applications. It explores the growth and preparation of new materials, as well as their processing, fabrication, bonding and encapsulation, together with the reliability, failure analysis, quality assurance and characterization related to the whole range of applications in electronics. The Journal presents papers in newly developing fields such as low dimensional structures and devices, optoelectronics including III-V compounds, glasses and linear/non-linear crystal materials and lasers, high Tc superconductors, conducting polymers, thick film materials and new contact technologies, as well as the established electronics device and circuit materials.