Effects of La doping on the crystal structures, densities, microstructures and thermosensitive characteristics of the LaBaCoO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) ceramics for low temperature NTC resistances.

In this work, polycrystalline LaBaCoO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) ceramic samples were prepared by conventional solid-state reaction process. La doping effects on the crystal structures, densities, microstructures and thermosensitive characteristics of the LaBaCoO ceramics were investigated. The major phase presented in the sintered samples is a hexagonal perovskite BaCoO phase. The doping of La reduces the quantity of voids and improves the densities of the LaBaCoO ceramics compared with La-free ceramic. The resistivities of the LaBaCoO ceramics decrease exponentially with increasing temperature in each of the range of 10-26 K and 26-100 K. The resistivities and B constants increase as the contents of La increase in the LaBaCoO ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]