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Composite materials based on polymers are used in various engineering applications due to their ability to be tailored for a specific application. As a result a composite could be selected or designed for a high performance part such as field grading applications in high voltage technology. Presently, there exists no commercially available material for electric field control. For this reason in this study we characterize a polymeric system composed of a thermoplast polymer filled with nanometer size ceramic particles. Since it is hard to tailor or to predict properties of composites theoretically, an Edisonian approach is employed. Composites with different filler weight concentrations are prepared and their dielectric performance are characterized. Impedance spectroscopy technique at a constant frequency is used to determine the dielectric properties of the composites at low temperatures. Measurement results and potential applications of the composite systems are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance of materials and their compatibility determine the size of the electrical insulation in power equipment. For this reason dielectric properties of electrical insulation materials are needed for low temperature power applications. In this work we report the dielectric properties of four polymers: polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polyvinyl butyral resin (PVB), and polyimide (PI–Kapton®). The dielectric measurements are performed with an electrical impedance analyzer in the frequency domain. The impedances are recorded in a cryocooler in the temperature range from 45 K to 350 K. The dielectric breakdown characteristics of the polymers are measured in a liquid nitrogen bath at atmospheric pressure. It is observed that PI and PMMA dissolved in toluene have the lowest dielectric losses for temperatures lower than 100 K. PVB and PI have the smallest spread in their breakdown strength data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]