Effects of acetophenone on high-field electrical properties in polyethylene

This paper describes the effect of acetophenone, one of the curing decomposition by-products, on high field electrical conduction and space charge distribution in low density polyethylene (LD-PE) films. When the applied field was relatively low, the current after polarity reversal with the positive acetophenone-coated Au electrode was much larger than that with negative one. The time dependence of leakage current has a peak. With the increase of the time from the acetophenone coating to the voltage application, the time from voltage application to the current peak appearance became short. When voltage was applied just after the acetophenone coating on the sample, space charge was formed in the vicinity of the positive electrode. On the other hand, when voltage was applied at 30 min after coating on the sample, space charge was formed from the positive electrode to near the negative electrode within 1 minute after the voltage application. From these results, it is concluded that the acetophenone promotes both carrier injection at the electrode interface and carrier transport in the bulk