Improvement of Transformer Liquid Insulation Using Nanodielectric Fluids: A Review

During the last 20 years, the search for new applications for nanotechnology has become one of the busiest in science, engineering, and manufacturing. New nanotechnology-based materials with superior properties have been developed and are already used in many everyday products and processes. The application of nanotechnology to high-voltage engineering has been mainly oriented towards the development and characterization of the so-called nanodielectric materials [1]. In 1994, Lewis [2] suggested that "a major field of study in the future development of dielectrics will concern their properties when relatively few molecules are involved. Such smallness arises naturally at interfaces of nanometric thickness and will occur also when dielectrics are employed in the nano-technical devices of the future." The physical phenomena that govern the behavior of materials at sub-microscopical scale are outlined in this publication [2]. The term "nanodielectric" was introduced by Frechette [3], [4], who defined nanodielectrics as "multicomponent dielectrics possessing nanostructures, the presence of which results in the change of one or several of its dielectric properties." © 2006 IEEE.