84 / 2018-08-24 07:08:21

Dielectric and Mechanical Properties Evaluation of Polypropylene Containing Nitride-based Nanoparticles

Polypropylene, nanocomposites, AC breakdown strength, dielectric spectroscopy, tensile strength

Polypropylene (PP) which is recyclable and easy to process, has the potential to replace conventional cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) for use in high voltage power cable insulation. This paper aims to determine the effects of different types of nitride-based nanoparticles on the dielectric and mechanical properties of PP. Thus, three nitride-based fillers, BN, AlN and SiN are selected. To evaluate the influence of different filler concentrations, 5g of each PP nanocomposite systems containing 5 or 10 wt.% of nitride-based nanoparticles were prepared by a modified solvent blending method. Meanwhile, 5g of neat PP was made to be the reference system. For determining the most suitable fillers in terms of electro-mechanical properties, three experiments namely, AC breakdown test, dielectric spectroscopy and tensile test were conducted. The results of these experiments indicate BN with 5wt.% filler concentration has the best performance on dielectric and mechanical properties among nanocomposites.