Degradation of electrical insulating paper monitored using high performance liquid chromatography

The degradation of electrical Kraft paper in carefully controlled laboratory experiments is examined in order to find a correlation between the decrease of dielectric properties, mechanical strength, and average molecular weight of the cellulose and the increase in concentration of furan compounds. The concentration of 2-furaldehyde in impregnating mineral oil appears to be inversely proportional to the tensile strength of aged paper, indicating that the furan analysis could be a valuable test for the degradation of the insulating paper.<<ETX>>