Production of negative temperature coefficient thermistors from copper-doped zinc oxide via combustion reaction

In this work, the effect on microstructure, morphology and thermoresistive property of Cu +2 doping in the ZnO was analyzed. The synthesis method used was the combustion reaction. The results show that, the doped ZnO generates a thermistor (NTC), without second phase formation. There is a shift from diffraction peaks to lower angles up to 2% Cu +2 concentration. Increasing the concentration dopant increases the sensitivity of the thermistor (0.012 to 0.167) and the initial resistivity (71KΩm to 0.59MΩm at 160ºC). In the morphological analysis, occurred increase in density (2.56 g/cm 3 to 4.04 g/cm 3 ). Graphical abstract