PVC nanocomposites for cable insulation with enhanced dielectric properties, partial discharge resistance and mechanical performance

Abstract

The current study aims to develop polyvinyl chloride (PVC) nanocomposites with enhanced electrical and mechanical properties by incorporating titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles within PVC chains. Different loading of nanoparticles and different nanoparticle surface states were considered. The surface states are unfunctionalised, functionalised using vinyl silane and functionalised using amino silane. The choice of a most suitable surface state was a critical factor that guarantees a good dispersion of nanoparticles and consequently enhances the compatibility between TiO2 and PVC matrix. The process followed in the PVC/TiO2 nanocomposites preparation, loaded with different wt.% of TiO2 nanoparticles, was the solvent method. The dielectric properties measured here were the relative permittivity (ɛr), dielectric loss (tanδ), breakdown strength (AC and DC under uniform field) and the internal partial discharges (PDs) within insulation cavity. All measurements have been performed under room temperature and at frequency ranged from 20 to 1.0 MHz. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the samples like elongation, elasticity modulus and tensile strength were also studied. Vinyl silane showed better improvements in both electrical and mechanical performances compared to the amino silane, especially in cases of high weight fractions of TiO2. This is because of the improvement in the PVC‐TiO2 interfacial region arise from the similarity of polarity and surface tension values of vinyl silane with that of PVC matrix and TiO2 nanoparticles.

Accurate Insulating Oil Breakdown Voltage Model Associated with Different Barrier Effects

“…In future work, the application of nanotechnology for enhancing the breakdown voltage strength of various insulating materials [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] in the presence of different barrier effects will be investigated, specifically in the transformer insulating oil.…”

Influence of Low-Grade Bentonite Modification on Mechanical, Thermal and Electrical Properties of PVC/Clay Nanocomposites for Electrical Applications

“…In the other hand, PVC/MB nanocomposite micrograph in Figure 4-b show remarkable low amount of bentonite aggregates at the surface. The dense distribution of raw bentonite in Figure 4-a can be revealed as a result of the incompatibility between PVC and bentonite particles (Abdel-Gawad, et al, 2020), but in the case of PVC/MB nanocomposite, the bentonite aggregates seem to be incorporated with PVC due to the increase of compatibility between them.…”

“…On the contrary, the gradual addition of surfacemodified bentonite as filler to PVC composites shows accompanied gradual decrease to the resulted PVC/MB nanocomposites until equal 5.86 ×Ω•cm after addition 10 phr of MB. This gradual decrease in volume resistivity of PVC/ MB nanocomposites can be revealed as result of the presence of surfactant material (Giancoli, 1995;Abdel-Gawad, et al, 2020).…”

Recent Advances in Polymer Nanocomposites Based on Polyethylene and Polyvinylchloride for Power Cables

“…Many experimental studies of the breakdown strength of nanocomposites have been reported [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ]. In most cases, the measurements were carried out under a uniform electric field or semi-uniform electric field using sphere-to-sphere electrode or sphere-to-plane electrode, respectively, as shown in Figure 3 .…”