Effect of crosslinking on space charge formation in crosslinked polyethylene

It is known that space charge is formed in cables insulated with crosslinked polyethylene. It is assumed that the crosslinking byproducts or the crosslinked polymer morphology is responsible for the space charge. In order to examine these possibilities, low-density polyethylene, crosslinked polyethylene, and degassed crosslinked polyethylene were soaked in crosslinking byproducts and their space charge distributions were measured under dc voltage application. As a result, it is concluded that cumyl alcohol is responsible for homo-charge layers in front of the electrodes in both low-density and crosslinked polyethylene and that the crosslinked structure has no effect.