Due to their poor electrical and mechanical proprieties, many polymeric materials are not suitable for electric power applications, mainly for electrical insulation. For instance, PVC is widely used in industrial applications, it is intended only for low voltage application though, because of high dielectric constant and high losses.
On the other hand, it has been found that Calcium carbonate, for example, improves the base properties of PVC by adding stiffness to the polymer matrix.
How can improve the mechanical and electrical properties of polymers (PVC, PP, PE,...etc)? and what are the most common (recent) methods used so far?
Dear Youcef, the most frequently used insulating material is HV cable insulation is polyethylene (LDPE or XLPE), where a recent trend is to add certain minority comonomers or nanofillers. In outdoor insulation silicone rubber, epoxy (cycloaliphatic) or EPDM rubber are used, of which siliocne rubber is the most durable. In in-door HV applications Bisphenol A or cycloaliphatic epoxy resins are used - mostly with anydride hardeners. In low voltage ergineering and in electronic a quite wide range of other materials are used - epoxy, polyurethane, polyimide, polyesters etc. Each has adavntages and disadvantages. You have to specify which property should be optimized of maximalized.
Respectful Gyorgy, thank you.
As you have said, each material has its weak point. For example, as far as PVC is concerned, the thermal stability is an important issue, it presents, say, accepted mechanical proprieties, but high dielectric constant and high losses due to it's polar nature. (Enhancement of dielectric properties is needed).
On the other hand, Polypropylene presents lower dielectric performance with regard to XLPE. However, PP attracts many interests because of its recyclability, environmentally friendly processing and absence of byproducts, it is being considered to replace cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) as power cable insulation in the near future. Thus, improvement of PP properties (like its breakdown strength) is an important topic I think.
Some of the interesting investigations, that I've found so far, are :
- The incorporation of synthetic silica nanoparticles into PP, which has shown an increase the ac breakdown strength compared to unfilled material.
- Nano Calcium carbonate (nano-CaCO3) has commonly been used in large mixture ratios to reinforce PP too.
- Surface modifed titanium oxide nanoparticles can be introduced into PP which lead to suppression of space charge accumulation in polypropylene/titanium oxide (PP/TiO2) nanocomposites.
In light of this, I am very interested to learn more about the improvement of such materials, mainly for cables insulation applications.
Best regards.
As the polymers are now a good alternative to metals in today’s manufacturing world, the above efforts and the current work present in your work aim to give a clear understanding of the ability of PVC to work safely within the designed loads in the applications where PVC is used.you must conducting polymer blend electrolytes complexed with magnetic nano particlewere prepared using a solution casting technique .
Dear Mousavi,
Thank you for the answer.
Are there any research papers or resources you suggest ?
Conference Paper Effect of Elastomer Type on Electrical and Mechanical Proper...
Article Breakdown characteristics of grafted polypropylene in PP/EPD...
Article Polypropylene based thermoplastic polymers for potential rec...
Article Insulating property of polypropylene nanocomposites filled w...
Article Thermoplastic isotactic polypropylene/ethylene-octene polyol...
Article Effect of different nanoparticles on tuning electrical prope...
Just some recent publications on RG in this field ...
Dr Gyorgy Banhegyi,
Thank you very much, I'm very grateful for always helping me.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Chemistry