Studies on prospect of HTV silicone rubber as dielectric material when reinforced with TiO2 nano particles

Abstract

Abstract The present work aims to improve both the thermal and dielectric properties at power frequency of millable high temperature vulcanized silicone rubber (HTV SR) so that it can be used as housing material for transformer bushings or as a substitute to ceramic and glass insulators. For this purpose, nano sized titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles have been incorporated into HTV SR. Samples of HTV SR, filled with different percentages by weight of nano TiO2 fillers have been synthesized along with one HTV SR sample without filler loading referred here as blank HTV SR sample in the subsequent sections. Morphological characterizations of these nano filler impregnated samples are carried out. Thermal, electrical and mechanical characterizations are performed and the results are compared with those obtained for blank HTV SR samples. Results showed that at lower filler concentrations, dielectric properties and thermal stability of HTV SR/TiO2 nanocomposites have improved to a considerable extent while retaining the mechanical properties.

Keywords

• Structure of solid clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanostructured materials
• Dielectric permittivity
• Preparation of reinforced polymers and polymer‐based composites
• Composite materials (engineering materials science)
• Oxide and ferrite semiconductors
• Other methods of nanofabrication