Possibility of non-destructive detection of electrochemical migration in epoxy resin by the pulsed electroacoustic method

Pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) method was applied as a nondestructive method to detect electrochemical migration in a sheet of epoxy resin and a sheet of laminate consisting of the same resin and a paper/phenol-resin composite. A significant decrease in the amount of negative charge was observed at the interface between the resin and the composite when the sample was the laminate. This is assumed to be due to the progress of electrochemical migration in the thickness direction. On the other hand, such a change in charge density was hardly observed when the sample was a sheet of epoxy resin. The electric field intensity in the epoxy resin layer in the laminate is assumed to be significantly enhanced, since the resistivity is much higher in the epoxy resin than in the composite. This seems to be the main reason why the electrochemical migration was induced only in the epoxy layer in the laminate. This means that observation of electrochemical migration in epoxy resin by the PEA method becomes possible by forming a laminate structure using the epoxy resin and paper/phenol-resin composite.