Breakdown properties of epoxy nanodielectric

Recent developments in polymeric dielectric nanocomposites have shown that these novel materials can improve design of high voltage (hv) components and systems. Some of the improvements can be listed as reduction in size (compact hv systems), better reliability, high energy density, voltage endurance, and multifunctionality. Nanodielectric systems demonstrated specific improvements that have been published in the literature by different groups working with electrical insulation materials. In this paper we focus on the influence of in-situ synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles on the dielectric breakdown characteristics of an epoxy-based nanocomposite system. The in-situ synthesis of the particles creates small nanoparticles on the order of 10 nm with narrow size distribution and uniform particle dispersion in the matrix. The breakdown strength of the nanocomposite was studied as a function of TiO₂ concentration at cryogenic temperatures. It was observed that between 2 and 6wt% yields high breakdown values for the nanodielectric.