Multifunctional Polyethylene nanodielectrics containing Platinum and nanosilica

An example of a second-generation nanodielectric was developed. Incorporating 2 additives into Polyethylene (PE) aimed at generating multifuncionality. First, PE/nanosilica composites were prepared. The use of pre-treated nanosilica (5 wt%) was found to ease the particle dispersion into the matrix. Thin sandwiches of PE-nanosilica/Platinum(Pt)/PE-nanosilica were prepared by thermal pressing and used to form millimetric building blocks. These building blocks were re-assembled by thermal pressing to ensure good dispersion. Some parametrization of the experimental procedure was explored. In general, the dielectric responses were found to be similar to those of PE yet with some variance. However, the adjunct of Pt in the composites results into a major increase of the thermal conductivity. This increase was only slightly impaired by the presence of the nanosilica. Thus this work has demonstrated the possibility of constructing multifunctional nanocomposites. Here a composite with dielectric response of PE, taking advantage of the transformed PE-nanosilica composite properties known from literature and with enhanced thermal conductivity that could be tailored, has been prepared and documented.