New low-voltage varistor composites

New varistor-type polymer composites for low-voltage application have been developed. The filler is made of commercially available doped ZnO-varistor powder. The polycrystalline filler particles act as varistors due to their typical grain-boundary structure. The presented varistor composite materials show very low values for the breakdown field strength down to 200 V mm−1, as compared with already existing varistor-type composites, and fairly highα-values in the range of 10.