Effect of charge transport on electrical degradation in polypropylene/organic molecular semiconductor composites for HVDC cable insulation

Polypropylene is considered to be the material of choice for environmentally friendly high voltage direct current cable insulation. The high power transmission of electrical energy exposes insulating materials to high temperatures and electric fields, resulting in the degradation of material properties. This paper reports that organic molecular semiconductors with strong electron affinity can effectively modulate electrical properties of polypropylene. The charge injection and transport process are analyzed by considering a combination of relations describing various conduction models in dielectrics, including the Richardson–Schottky (RS) emission and the hopping conduction. Based on the performed experiments, a modified Wiesmann–Zeller (WZ) model is proposed to simulate the electrical treeing process of polypropylene. The electrical treeing results are well verified with the simulation results, which offer a valuable tool for further analysis of the effect of intrinsic barrier height, hopping distance, and activation energy on the electrical degradation in the material. This work provides an insightful analysis of multiple charge transport mechanisms affecting the electrical degradation of the polymer, which is crucially essential for the rational design of high-performance insulation materials.

[1]  Yao Zhou,et al.  Improved High-Temperature Electrical Properties of Polymeric Material by Grafting Modification , 2022, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

[2]  E. Bilotti,et al.  Surface Engineering of 2D Dielectric Polymer Films for Scalable Production of High-Energy-Density Films , 2022, Progress in Materials Science.

[3]  J. Tsurumi,et al.  Scattering mechanism of hole carriers in organic molecular semiconductors deduced from analyses of terahertz absorption spectra using Drude–Anderson model , 2022, Applied Physics Letters.

[4]  Yu Zhao,et al.  Recent Progress and Future Prospects on All-Organic Polymer Dielectrics for Energy Storage Capacitors. , 2021, Chemical reviews.

[5]  W. Ma,et al.  Molecular Doping Efficiency in Organic Semiconductors: Fundamental Principle and Promotion Strategy , 2021, Advanced Functional Materials.

[6]  Xianli Liu,et al.  Significantly Improved Energy Storage Performance of PVDF Ferroelectric Films by Blending PMMA and Filling PCBM , 2021, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

[7]  L. Weng,et al.  Preparation and Electrical Properties of 4-allyloxy-2-hydroxybenzophenone Grafted Polypropylene for HVDC Cables , 2021, Journal of Electronic Materials.

[8]  Hui Yang,et al.  Influence of the carrier behaviors in p-GaN gate on the threshold voltage instability in the normally off high electron mobility transistor , 2021, Applied Physics Letters.

[9]  Yanhui Wei,et al.  Effect of magnetic compound electrode on space charge injection and accumulation in LDPE , 2020 .

[10]  Yao Zhou,et al.  Polymer/molecular semiconductor all-organic composites for high-temperature dielectric energy storage , 2020, Nature Communications.

[11]  W. H. Siew,et al.  Effect of different surface treatment agents on the physical chemistry and electrical properties of polyethylene nano‐alumina nanocomposites , 2020, High Voltage.

[12]  A. Vaughan,et al.  Effect of organoclay loading on the dielectric properties and charge dynamics of a PP‐rubber nanocomposite , 2020 .

[13]  X. Bian,et al.  Improved space charge suppression in PP/SEBS nanocomposites by controlling MgO nanoparticles with abundant surface defects , 2019, Applied Physics Letters.

[14]  X. Bian,et al.  Space charge suppression in environment-friendly PP nanocomposites by employing freeze-dried MgO with foam nanostructure for high-voltage power cable insulation , 2019, Applied Physics Letters.

[15]  D. Bao,et al.  Coexistence of unipolar and bipolar switching in nanocrystalline spinel ferrite ZnFe2O4 thin films synthesized by sol-gel method , 2018, Applied Physics Letters.

[16]  Y. Nakayama,et al.  Hole-phonon coupling effect on the band dispersion of organic molecular semiconductors , 2017, Nature Communications.

[17]  T. Jackson,et al.  Flexible high-temperature dielectric materials from polymer nanocomposites , 2015, Nature.

[18]  George Chen,et al.  Determination of threshold electric field for charge injection in polymeric materials , 2015 .

[19]  Xingyi Huang,et al.  Core–Shell Structured High‐k Polymer Nanocomposites for Energy Storage and Dielectric Applications , 2015, Advanced materials.

[20]  Yi Wang,et al.  Theory of modified thermally stimulated current and direct determination of trap level distribution , 2011 .

[21]  H. R. Zeller,et al.  A fractal model of dielectric breakdown and prebreakdown in solid dielectrics , 1986, Conference on Electrical Insulation & Dielectric Phenomena — Annual Report 1986.