As a new type of electrical contact material, Ag/SnO2 has poor processing performance and large contact resistance, which limits its application so far. In order to improve the machinability and electrical performance of the Ag/SnO2 electrical contact materials, a new kind of nanoAg/SnO2 electrical contact material doped rare earth element Ce was prepared by sol-gel-chemical plating method. The purity of the powders was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the crystallite size of the nanoparticle was calculated according to the Scherrer equation. The distribution of Ce-doped SnO2 powers were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In parallel, rated making and breaking experiments on nanoAg/SnO2 were conducted. The results of XRD and SEM show that the nanoSnO2 powders are small, uniform and with no obvious phenomenon of reunion, and thus significantly improve the density, strength and machinability of the sample. Furthermore, the results of arc erosion show that the nanoAg/SnO2 electricity contact materials doped element Ce have superior fusion welding resistance properties.
