Nonlinear response and two stable electroconducting states in transparent plasticized PVC films

On Anomalies of Electrical Conductivity in Antistatic Plasticized Poly(vinyl chloride) Films

“…Research in this direction were carried out by the authors in [8][9][10][11] for practically important case of films of plasticized PVC, which is currently one of the most widely used polymers. In particular, developing new methodological approach and using an efficient plasticizer, the so-called "modifier A" (see below), which allows one to obtain plasticized PVC with sufficiently high electrical conductivity, unachievable with conventional plasticizers, in [8][9][10][11] it was able to obtain the most characteristic effects for WBP and to investigate the "pure" bulk conductivity of polymer samples in flexible PVC films with thickness 20-400 microns.…”

“…For large ballast resistances and low currents (of the order of several nanoamper) a "soft" breakdown is realized, which is reversible and does not lead to any visible damage of the sample, even when repeated many times switching. At low field strengths for PVC plasticates spontaneously switching processes to the HCS have been reported in [9] at voltages of hundreds of times below threshold. Such spontaneous transitions can be regarded as giant (three or more orders of magnitude) non-thermodynamic fluctuations which occur for thickness of polymer films from 20 microns.…”

Breakdown features in electric cables with polymeric insulation

“…The works of recent years associated with the use of new types of plasticizers for PVC [3][4][5] made a new view arise on the possibility of safe use of PVC as poly meric insulation in electric cables. When using new types of plasticizers in PVC elastrons, it becomes pos sible to fix absolutely unexpected electrical properties that have an anomalous character and are associated, for example, with various mechanisms of electrical conduction.…”

“…In our studies [3][4][5], when using new types of plas ticizers of PVC films and studying their electrical properties, we found effects of strong nonlinearity, relaxation drifts, and spontaneous reversible transi tions between the low conductivity and high conduc tivity states.…”

“…Figure 1 shows the schematic of the measuring setup, which allowed us to investigate PVC films [3][4][5]. Investigations were performed in the voltage region both above and below the breakdown threshold not leading to the destruction of the polymeric film; there fore, effects could be observed repeatedly.…”