Negative Thermal Sensitivity of La1-xSrxFeO3 Films Prepared by Screen-Printing Method
The impacts of different Sr content on the phase structure, negative temperature coefficient (NTC) characteristic and conduction mechanism at high temperature of lanthanum strontium ferrite (La1-xSrxFeO3, x=0.1~0.6) (LSFO) films were systematically discussed. The LSFO films were prepared on the alumina substrate by the screen printing method. The results showed that the crystal structure transformed from orthorhombic (x=0.1~0.3) to rhombohedral (x=0.4~0.6). All the samples presented NTC performance. With increasing the Sr content, B values increased to the maximum 3885 K (x=0.4) and then decreased. Non-adiabatic small polaron hopping mechanism was dominant for their electric transport in the temperature range from 450 K to 873 K. The activation energy was calculated between 0.37 eV and 0.57 eV, and the sample La0.7Sr0.3FeO3 showed the minimum value of the activation energy. Therefore the La1-xSrxFeO3 (x=0.3, 0.4, 0.5) films have the potential to be developed into high-performance NTC resistors.