Grain growth control in Sb2O3-doped zinc oxide

Microstructure development in Sb2O3-doped ZnO was studied to evaluate the influence of inversion boundaries (IBs) on ZnO grain growth. In general, the addition of Sb2O3 is believed to inhibit the ZnO grain growth via the formation of spinels and IBs, but we have shown that even the conditions of exaggerated grain growth can be created in this system. We designed an experiment for diffusional doping of ZnO under slightly increased partial pressure of Sb2O3. In the high-concentration regime we observed no spinels, and yet the ZnO grains were small and inhibited in growth, while in the low-concentration regime we found huge grains, several times larger than normal ZnO grains, showing an obvious exaggerated growth. By controlling the number of nuclei with IBs we can design coarse-grained microstructures even with Sb2O3 doping, which has far-reaching implications in the production of low-voltage varistor devices.