Study on quantification method for dispersion and distribution of sphere-like particles and relationship with AC/DC breakdown strength in polymer nanocomposites

Polymer nanocomposites are more and more researched and employed as dielectrics in electrical power equipment. However, the bad dispersion and distribution of particles are often reported to deteriorate the dielectric properties of polymer nanocomposites. In most cases, researchers tend to use SEM/TEM images with imprecise descriptions to describe these two factors, and there was still no clear relationship between their quantified particle dispersion characteristics and dielectric properties of polymer nanocomposites. This work is to, first, propose a combined quantification method to estimate the dispersion and distribution of spherical/ellipsoidal particles/aggregates in polymer nanocomposites based on SEM images of epoxy SiO₂ nanocomposites. Based on the proposed quantification method, epoxy nanocomposite with surface treated SiO₂ shows overall better dispersion and distribution of particles/aggregates than those with untreated ones. The presence of agglomerations would lead to the enhancement of mobility of charge carriers and thus reduction of breakdown strength, which become more obvious with the growth of filler loadings. It is found that, in AC breakdown tests, dispersion and distribution of particles/aggregates show little influence on the reduction of AC breakdown strength. However, those should be the main factor which influences the DC breakdown strength in epoxy nanocomposites with a variation of filler loading concentrations.