Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SC2-O036 Invited Talk
IMPACT OF THE NATURE AND PREPARATION OF POLYMER
NANOCOMPOSITES FOR ELECTRICITY TRANSPORT NETWORK
Claudiane Ouellet Plamondon 1
1 École de technologie supérieure (ETS), Construction, Canada.
Environmentally sustainable power sources (hydro, wind, massive photovoltaic)
are often located a long distance the population. High power transmission with
low loss over very long distances is needed. Cables are also buried for protection
storms and flooding. Power cables have a coaxial structure. Layers of
semiconductive plastic are placed between the conductor and the insulated
layer. These materials must disperse the charges and the heat. Nanodielectrics
are incorporated in the polymer matrix to achieve these functions. The size of
the interface has an impact on the composite properties. In this study, lowdensity
polyethylene (LDPE) is an example of a non-polar polymer and ethylene
vinyl acetate (EVA) is an example of the polar copolymer, both insulating
polymers commonly found in cables. The nanodielectric materials are carbon
black, commercial multilayered graphene and clay biosourced graphene-like
materials. The dielectric properties are measured with broadband dielectric
spectroscopy at different temperatures. As the filler content reach the
percolation threshold, the nanodielectrics are more connected, as observed by
scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscope. In LDPE, when the
percolation threshold is reached at a filler content, the thermal conductivity
increases in a step. In EVA, the thermal conductivity increases more gradually.
The fabrication method to mix the polymer and filler (melt compounding,
solvent casting, extrusion) also has an impact on the properties. While
alternative nanodiectrics are emerging, carbon black is generally more
enduring. Polymer nanocomposites for electricity transport network are more
challenging to improve.
Keywords: Energy transport, Polymer nanocomposites, Graphene
Presenting authors email: claudiane.ouellet-plamondon@etsmtl.ca