Abstract
PTCR ceramics of $(Ba_{0.998}Sm_{0.002})TiO_3+0.001MnCO_3+xSiO_2$ (x=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 mol%) were fabricated by solid state method. Disk samples of diameter 5 mm and thickness about 1mm were sintered at $1,290^{\circ}C$ for 2 h in reduced atmosphere of $5%H_2-95%N_2$ followed by re-oxidation at $600^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. in $20%O_2-80%N_2$.and their microstructures and electrical properties were investigated with SEM and Multimeter. The color of sintered samples was strongly dependent on $SiO_2$ content showing that the color of samples with $SiO_2$ of 1~2 mol% was gray but that of samples with $SiO_2$ of 4~6 mol% was changed from gray to blue, which seems to be related with the reduction of samples due to the oxygen vacancies created during the sintering in reduced atmosphere. $SiO_2$ content had a great influence on the microstructure and the electrical properties. With increasing $SiO_2$ content, the grain size of samples increased and the resistivity as well as the resistivity jump ($R_{285}/R_{min}$) decreased, which is considered to be attributed to the resistivity change at grain interior and grain boundary due to the fast mass transfer through $SiO_2$ liquide phase during the sintering. Samples with 2 mol% $SiO_2$ has the resistivity of $202{\Omega}cm$ and the resistivity jump of 3.28. It is expected that $SiO_2$ doped $BaTiO_3$ based PTC ceramics can be used for multilayered PTC thermistor due to the resistance to the sintering in reduced atmosphere.