Short-medium term behaviour of polypropylene and its nanocomposites

The short-medium term behaviour of pure and nanocomposite polypropylene is investigated: in particular both breakdown voltage tests and electrical aging tests are performed applying sinusoidal waveforms at industrial frequency (50 Hz) to the studied materials. The nanocomposite material is obtained by the dispersion of 10% by wt. of inorganic nanosized clay inside the organic polypropylene (PP) matrix. During the electrical aging tests, the specimen breakdown condition is selected as the end-point criterion; the comparison between the results obtained form the tests on the pure and the nanocomposite polymer evidence the interesting behaviour of the PP-nanocomposite; in particular the nanostructured material shows a better medium term performance with respect to the pure polymer matrix.