Electric strength and molecular structure of saturated gaseous hydrocarbons

While many intensive investigations have been made on a few gases (e.g. the noble gases, hydrogen, nitrogen and air) in an effort to elucidate the mechanism of spark breakdown, little effort has been made to correlate the sparking potential with molecular structure (la). We have attempted to do this by studying a series of closely related saturated hydrocarbons from C₁ through C₆, including straight chain, branched and cyclic compounds. We have measured also the so-called “corona starting voltage” for these gases placed in an uniform field between glass dielectrics. This is of interest because it represents gas breakdown between electrodes of markedly higher work function than the metals, and also because of its importance in the field of electrical insulation.