Electrical treeing characteristics of alumina‐, zinc oxide‐, and organoclay‐nanoparticle‐filled XLPE nanocomposites

Abstract Polymer nanocomposites have been widely exploited in different engineering applications like high‐voltage engineering application. This is mainly associated with the ease at which they can be tailored toward specific applications. In the present work, alumina‐ and organoclay‐based nanofillers were separately incorporated in cross‐linked polyethylene (XLPE). Different formulations of the XLPE nanocomposites were fabricated with the help of an internal mixer after which they were molded to produce test specimens. The effect of nanofiller variation (0.25 and 0.5 wt% loading) on the electrical treeing phenomenon is reported herein. It was observed that the incorporation of 0.5 wt% alumina significantly enhances the tree inception voltage. In addition, compared to 0.25 wt% alumina‐, 0.25 and 0.5 wt% organoclay‐filled XLPE nanocomposites, 0.5 wt% alumina was found to lower the length and growth of the electrical tree, as well as the expansion coefficient of the XLPE nanocomposite.