Effects of annealing and firing in wet hydrogen on the dielectric breakdown strengths of alumina ceramics

Annealing and firing in wet hydrogen are widely used steps in the processing alumina.ceramic insulators that may affect their dielectric breakdown strengths(DBS).In this study,the effects of annealing(at 1300℃for 7 h)and firing in wet hydrogen on the DBS of alumina ceramics(all sintered at 1650℃)were studied,and the underlying mechanisms were analyzed by material characterizations.Annealing reduced the DBS of the 95%alumina ceramics due to the inter-granular phase crystallization,and the reduction in the DBS could be correlated to the reduction in mechanical strength.In contrast,annealing improved the DBS of the 99%alumina ceramic without intergranular phase transformation.Firing in wet hydrogen at 1500℃caused the DBS increment,which can be ascribed to the reduction in the concentrations of point defects and electrical carriers.

Improved Breakdown Strength in(Ba_(0.6)Sr_(0.4))_(0.85)Bi_(0.1)TiO_3 Ceramics with Addition of CaZrO_3 for Energy Storage Application

（Ba（0.6） Sr（0.4））（0.85） Bi（0.1） TiO3 ceramics doped with x wt%CaZrO3（x= 0-10） were synthesized by solid-state reaction method. The effects of CaZrO3 amount on the dielectric properties and structure of（Ba（0.6）Sr（0.4））（0.85） Bi（0.1） TiO3 ceramics were investigated. X-ray diffraction results indicated a pure cubic perovskite structure for all samples and that the lattice parameter increased till x=5 and then slightly decreased. A homogenous microstructure was observed with the addition of CaZrO3. Dielectric measurements revealed a relaxor-like characteristic for all samples and that the diffusivity γ reached the maximum value of 1.78 at x=5. With the addition of CaZrO3, the dielectric constant dependence on electric field was weakened, insulation resistivity enhanced and dielectric breakdown strength improved obviously and reached 19.9 k V/mm at x=7.5. In virtue of low dielectric loss（tan d〈0.001 5）, moderate dielectric constant（er 〉1 500） and high breakdown strength（Eb 〉17.5 k V/mm）, the CaZrO3 doped（Ba（0.6）Sr（0.4））0.85 Bi（0.1） TiO3 ceramic is a potential candidate material for high power electric applications.

Theoretical Studies on Dielectric Breakdown Strength Increasing Mechanism of SF6 and Its Potential Alternative Gases

A theoretical investigation on the dielectric insulation mechanism of sulfur hexafluoride（SF6） and its potential alternative gases at the atomic and molecular levels was made. The electronic structures of the molecules of them were calculated at the B3LYP/6-31 11＋G（d,p） level. The HOMO-LUMO energy gaps, ionization potentials, electron affinities, and dipole moments of the studied molecules at the ground state were obtained. The 11 isomerization reactions, with the harmonic vibration frequencies of the equilibrium geometries and the minimum energy path by the intrinsic reaction coordinate theory, were also obtained at the same level. The results show that the insulation gas, with the larger HOMO-LUMO energy gap, the higher ionization potential and the stronger electron affinity, can increase the dielectric breakdown strength efficiently, which is in good agreement with the available experimental finding. We suggested that the molecule with isomerization reaction occurring can dissipate the energy of hot electrons availably, which is favorable to the dielectric breakdown strength increasing for the SF6 potential alternative gas.

Temperature dependence of dielectric breakdown of silicone-based dielectric elastomers

A large number of insulation/dielectric failures in power systems are related to thermally-induced dielectrical breakdown,also known as‘thermal breakdown’,at higher operating temperatures.In this work,the thermal breakdown behavior of typical silicone formulations,used as dielectrics in stretchable electronic devices,is analyzed at practically relevant operating temperatures ranging from 20℃ to 80℃.An effective way of delaying the thermal breakdown of insulating materials is to blend micro-or nano-sized inorganic particles with high thermal conductivity,to dissipate better any losses generated during energy transduction.Therefore,two types of commercial silicone formulations,blended with two types of rutile hydrophobic,high-dielectric TiO_(2) fillers,are investigated in relation to their dielectric properties,namely,relative permittivity,the dissipation factor,and electrical breakdown strength.The breakdown strengths of these silicone composites are subsequently evaluated using Weibull analysis,which indicates a negative correlation between temperature and shape parameter for all compositions,thus illustrating that the homogeneity of the samples decreases in line with temperature,but the breakdown strengths nevertheless increase initially due to the trapping effect from the high-permittivity fillers.

Dielectric phenomena and electrical energy storage of poly(vinylidene fluoride) based high-k polymers

Polymeric dielectrics have wide range of applications in the field of electrical energy storage because of their light weight and easy processing. However, the state-of-the-art polymer dielectrics, such as biaxially orientated polypropylene, could not meet the demand of minimization of electronic devices because of its low energy density. Recently, poly（vinylidene fluoride） （PVDF） based ferroelectric polymers have attracted considerable interests for energy storage applications because of their high permittivity and high breakdown strength. Unfortunately, the high dielectric loss and/or high remnant polarization of PVDF-based polymers seriously limits their practical applications for electrical energy storage. Since the discovery of relaxor ferroelectric behavior was firstly reported in irradiated poly（vinylidene fluoride- trifluoroethylene） （P（VDF-TrFE）） copolyrner, many strategies have been developed to enhanced the electrical energy storage capability, including copolymerization, grafting, blending and fabricating of multilayer How these methods affect the polymorphs, crystallinity, crystal size of PVDF-based polymers and the connection between these microstructures and their corresponding energy storage properties are discussed in detail.