Study of Sintering Behavior and Electrical Conductivity of Cr-Zn-Fe-O System

A series of chemical compositions based on Cr, Fe and O with Zn as a partially substituting ion has been prepared in the general formula ZnxCr1-xFe2O by coprecipitation method using NH4OH as the precipitating agent at pH=10.3. The prepared samples were identified by both thermal analysis (DTA and TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that no single phase was obtained for any of the studied compositions but a mixture of different phases was observed, depending on the molar percentage of zinc ion substitution as well as on the sintering temperature. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity, σ, of the prepared samples was plotted between 25 and 680℃. It was observed that the electrical conductivity increased with temperature for both samples with x=0.00 and 0.80 Zn ion content while it was nearly temperature independent for samples with intermediate Zn concentration x=0.2 and 0.5 mol fraction. The activation energy, Ea, calculated from the linear relation, lgσ-1000/T for the final mixtures (sintered at 1300℃) was calculated.