Effect of nanoparticles loading on electrical tree propagation in polymer nanocomposites

The incorporation of nanoparticles into polymer materials is pivotal on electrical tree behavior, as nanoparticles seem to form barriers delaying and/or preventing tree growth. Even with a small nanoparticles loading, the polymer acquires great resistance to tree initiation and growth. In this paper, a cellular automaton model is used in order to investigate how different nanoparticles loadings affect tree growth in nanocomposites. Simulations are performed for dc voltage, which is applied to the needle of a needle-plane electrode arrangement. Epoxy/TiO₂ nanocomposites with different nanoparticles loadings are used as samples. The simulation results show that tree growth is limited as nanoparticles loading increases. Moreover, the tree length depends on the nanoparticles loading and it is smaller in the epoxy/TiO₂ nanocomposite with the higher nanoparticles loading.