The behavior and effect of CuO in Ag/SnO2 materials

In this paper, the behavior of CuO in CuO-doped SnO2 nanoparticles was investigated; the effect of the addition of CuO on physical properties and arc erosion behavior of Ag/SnO2 materials were examined. The CuO-doped SnO2 nanoparticles were structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HR-TEM). The surface morphology of arc eroded Ag/SnO2 materials was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results indicated that the crystallized monoclinic CuO in CuO-doped SnO2 nanoparticles has formed and distributed on the surface of SnO2 nanoparticles. It was found that Ag/SnO2 materials adding CuO exhibited denser microstructure and better hardness as well as better arc erosion resistance compared with Ag/SnO2 materials. The arc erosion results and theoretical analysis indicated that the addition of CuO in Ag/SnO2 materials can obviously inhibited the spattering loss of molten droplets. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.