Nanodielectrics Applications-Today and Tomorrow

A review of the literature on nanotechnology for the electrical power sector shows considerable hype in the technology, but the actual usage of nanomaterials in the sector is far below other industries. As an example, the automotive industry has made great strides in using nanomaterials because of their lower weight and higher physical strength. There are several reasons for this, the obvious one being the quantity of nanodielectrics is relatively small compared to nanomaterials in other industries. The second reason is that although there are clear improvements in some dielectric properties, for example resistance to partial discharges, the improvements in other properties are not so significant, or sometimes not even evident. Uniform dispersion of nano-sized inorganic fillers in nanodielectrics during manufacture is critical for repeatable electrical properties improvements, and this has been a problem in some of the reported properties such as breakdown strength. This comes about due to the fact that nanoparticles agglomerate easily because of the high surface energy, and conventional mixing techniques do not break apart the nanoparticle agglomerates. Another problem is the incompatibility of hydrophilic nanoparticles with hydrophobic polymers, such as silicone rubber, which results in poor interfacial interactions. © 2006 IEEE.