Electric strength and molecular structure of liquid aliphatic hydrocarbons

In 1951 it was reported by Salvage (1) that the electric strengths of liquid straight-chain aliphatic hydrocarbons, as measured under d.c. conditions between hemispherical electrodes, increased with increase in the chain length of the hydrocarbon molecules. Until that time, a correlation of electrical breakdown of liquids with known molecular properties had been virtually impossible because of inadequate experimental techniques. The measured electric strength of a liquid is well known to be extremely sensitive to electrode shape and surface condition as well as to the presence of suspended foreign bodies in the liquid itself. Unless a concentrated effort is made to eliminate such complicating factors, the results obtained are usually highly scattered and unreliable.