Preparation and performance of Ag/La2NiO4 composite contact materials

The La2NiO4 metalloid conductive ceramics produced by conventional ceramic preparation technique were added into fine silver powders to form Ag/La2NiO4 composite contact materials. It is found by XRD that the phase structure of La2NiO4 ceramics did not change after arc erosion and exhibited a high chemical stability. The test results of model life and mechanical and physical properties show that the mass transfer and erosion is less and the performance of surface anti-erosion is more favorable for the contacts, resulting in the small resistivity and good mechanical properties. The Ag/La2NiO4 contacts exhibit an excellent performance compared with the Ag/CdO and Ag/SnO2 contact materials and very possible for the new type of contact materials as environmentally acceptable alternative to Ag/CdO.