Electrical properties of surfaces of polymeric insulators

This review attempts to bring together published data, their analysis, and models related to water adsorption and surface conductivity in humid environment of unirradiated and γ-irradiated practical insulating solid polymers. It also includes similar information on the decay of charges deposited by corona on their surfaces. In general, the wetting process in these materials is poorly understood. An appropriate dose of gamma irradiation reduces both the sorption of water and the surface conductivity which has been observed to be of ohmic nature at low to moderate fields, whereas at high fields it appears to be nonlinear. The recent data on the decay of surface charges deposited by corona do not indicate any dominant injection process, and the nature of the charge decay may originate from a bulk polarization process