Rapid Measuremnent of the Deterioration of Oil-Immersed Paper

A rapid measurement of thermal deterioration of oil-immersed papers by mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph is described. A special assembly was developed using a mercury diffusion pump and automatic Topler pump to extract a very small quantity of generated gas from the oil and to collect it in a reservoir. The gas collected by the above assembly is analyzed by mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph. Logarithm of the generation rate of (CO + CO2) [log (CO + CO2)] is proportional to the reciprocal of absolute temperature (1/T). This linear relationship can be explained by chemical reaction-rate theory and it is shown that the thermal endurance and the thermal life of insulating papers in oil can be estimated by the generation rate of (CO + CO2) in a few weeks as was reported previously for air and vacuum. But the change of the slope of the line log (CO + CO2) versus 1/T at the temperature near 130°C was observed. This is a new mechanism of thermal deterioration of insulating paper in oil, which is apparently unexplained.