Statistical aspects of discharges in highly purified tetramethyl-pentane

Electric discharges have been investigated in tetramethyl-pentane, a saturated hydrocarbon liquid, which has been produced with a purity comparable to the standards for semiconducting materials. The statistics of the time delays which precede breakdown agree with those measured for similar hydrocarbon liquids having much higher impurity concentrations. The distributions are essentially of the Weibull type with a shape factor ranging between one and two. Therefore, it can be assumed that the discharge mechanisms are the same in the low-purity and the high-purity samples. In addition, the dielectric strength of highly purified tetramethyl-pentane corresponds closely to that of the other, less pure, hydrocarbon liquids