Recycling zinc oxide varistor blocks for electro‐active silicone composites

Abstract

The recycling process toward the elimination of varistor wastes into new electro‐active silicon composites has been investigated. We studied the dependence of the E‐J characteristics on the aggregate content in the polymer matrix. Formulations with 40 vol.% metal oxide varistor aggregates in the 100‐200 μm range exhibit reliable nonlinear behavior with a switching voltage of 280±30 V/mm. The breakdown voltage of the composite decreases as both filler's diameter and filler's volume fraction increases in the 550‐220 V/mm and 440‐280 V/mm range, respectively. This paves the way for the valorization of varistors based zinc oxide (ZnO) ceramics.

Tuneable conductivity at extreme electric fields in ZnO tetrapod-silicone composites for high-voltage power cable insulation

“…Such measurements on ZnO composites can be tricky because repeated measurements on the same sample may show quite different results 17 . The nonlinear conductivity test was reproducible when measuring one sample at three different positions, as well as at the same position on other samples of the same composition, see Fig.…”

Contribution to the Percolation Threshold Study of Silicon Carbide Filled Polydimethylsiloxane Composites Used For Field Grading Application

“…From this equation, nonlinear α coe cient is calculated: α = assuming that α(E) does not depend on the eld in a de nite range. This range might be between 0.1 and 1 mA.cm -2 for instance in the case of varistor ceramics [21].…”

Interest of nonlinear ZnO/silicone composite materials in cable termination

“…Several publications reported on those materials and expected applications are listed in Table 1. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] (The reference 10 is somewhat exotic and exciting since the field grading material is obtained by centrifugation. The resulting material is a semiconductor having graded concentrations and hence spatial graded permittivity).…”