Polymer nanocomposites have recently been attracting attention among researchers in electrical insulating applications from energy storage to power delivery. However, partial discharge has always been a predecessor to major faults and problems in this field. In addition, there is a lot more to explore, as neither the partial discharge characteristic in nanocomposites nor their electrical properties are clearly understood. By adding a small amount of weight percentage (wt%) of nanofillers, the physical, mechanical, and electrical properties of polymers can be greatly enhanced. For instance, nanofillers in nanocomposites such as silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3) and titania (TiO2) play a big role in providing a good approach to increasing the dielectric breakdown strength and partial discharge resistance of nanocomposites. Such polymer nanocomposites will be reviewed thoroughly in this paper, with the different experimental and analytical techniques used in previous studies. This paper also provides an academic review about partial discharge in polymer nanocomposites used as electrical insulating material from previous research, covering aspects of preparation, characteristics of the nanocomposite based on experimental works, application in power systems, methods and techniques of experiment and analysis, and future trends.

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Surface discharge is a common electrical discharge that normally occurs on the surface of outdoor insulators and also causes the failure in the electrical insulation system. One of the causes of surface discharge is the presence of high voltage stress. Experimental works had been carried out to examine the surface discharge characteristics on polymeric samples as insulation material. The IEC (b) electrode configuration had been used to investigate the surface discharges phenomena of different types of polymeric materials with controlled of air relative humidity (RH). In these experimental works, three types of polymeric sample were selected, namely high-density polyethylene (HDPE), ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), and polystyrene (PS), respectively. The characteristics of the discharge are critically depending on the types of polymer. Surface discharges intensity, number of discharge occurrence, and surface morphology of each polymeric material were also investigated. Comparisons of these electrical characteristics were conducted among the samples. Results from the experiment showed that the EVA samples experienced severe degradation as compared to HDPE and PS samples.

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Polymer nanocomposites have been attracting attention among researchers as electrical insulating application from energy storage to power delivery. However, partial discharge has always been a predecessor to major faults and problems in this field. In addition, there are a lot more to explore as the characteristic of partial discharge in nanocomposites is not clearly understood as well as the electrical properties of the nanocomposites. By adding a few amount of weight percentage (wt%) of the nano fillers, the physical, mechanical and electrical properties of polymers can be greatly enhanced. This is due to its amazing characteristic of having large specific area as a consequential from its nano sized particle that could enhance the electrical properties of the insulator. For instance, nano fillers in nanocomposites such as silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3) and titania (TiO2), play big role in providing good approach to increase dielectric breakdown strength and partial discharge resistance of nanocomposites. Such polymer nanocomposites will be reviewed thoroughly in this paper based on previous experimental works and studies. This paper provides reviews from related publications from year 1997 to 2011 including the results of experimental works which have been conducted by the authors with main focus on partial discharge characteristics in polymer nanocomposites, which demonstrates that research and utilization of polymer nanocomposites has well developed from past decades and will possess a high demand in future as electrical insulating material.