4. Conclusions
ZnO ceramics doped with Al2O3 have been produced and their resistance-temperature properties and microstructures were studied. The room temperature resistivity of ZnO decreased with increasing Al2O3 addition level until about 0.25%. Higher addition level of Al2O3 resulted in the resistivity increase due to less densification of the ceramics as confirmed by significant amount of pores within the structure and the formation of the nonconductive phase ZnAl2O4. Nevertheless, the contribution of ZnAl2O4 on the resistivity increase could not be significant as generally believed due to the possibility of layered texture formation. The ceramics doped with Al2O3 showed a change from NTCR to PTCR at temperatures of about 250 and 450 °C for ceramics sintered at 1300 and 1400 °C, respectively, and this feature was weakened for samples with lower Al2O3 content or sintered at a higher temperature. Based on this feature, this material has the potential to be used as a thermal switching device. Microstructure studies revealed that higher addition level of the Al2O3 inhibited the densification process.