Development and Characterization of Polymer Nanocomposites for Electrical Insulation Application

Polymer nanocomposites have demonstrated significant electrical and mechanical properties further has wide range of applications in different industries. Polymers are reinforced by different fillers to improve the limitations of polymers and widen their applications. Even though exhaustive research on the effectiveness of electrical insulation has been carried out, the optimal use of polymer nanocomposites in the electrical insulating industry is still under study. In this study, the processing of 1,2 and 3 weight percentage of clay nanoplatelet as potential nanofiller to form nanocomposites and its importance is studied. The Electrical, mechanical and morphology results are presented systematically. The inclusion of nanoclay rises the eletrical properties of the nanocomposites. The dielectric constant ranges from 3.20-3.38 at 10 Hz and decreases to 2.57 to 2.64 at 8 MHz for 1,2 and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$3 \text{wt} \%$</tex> as compared to pure Epoxy having values of 3.40 to 2.70 respectively. Tensile modulus increases with the filler loading. Morphology study indicates the good bonding of nanoclay with the base Epoxy matrix.