Direct Oxidation of an Alloy Precursor Complete Oxidation of Bismuth and Zinc Powder

This work reports on a process (DOPA: Direct Oxidation of a Precursory Alloy) of preparation of ceramics used as varistors for the electric protection against power surges. This new route has been applied for the production of ZnO varistors doped with Bi^sub 2^O^sub 3^, Sb^sub 2^O^sub 3^ and other oxides. One important stage of this process is the total conversion of an alloy into the corresponding mixed oxide. We have reported here the studies of the full conversions metal-ceramic powders of the main components of these varistors: zinc and bismuth.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]