This study investigated the effect of various ceramic micro and nano fillers on the different properties (dielectric and thermal) of a polyethylene (PE) matrix. The fillers used were alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) and boron nitride (BN). The polymer composites were prepared by ball milling and thick films containing wt. 50% of the inorganic phase were pressed. The encapsulation of the inorganic additives into the PE matrix was successfully achieved. The real part of the dielectric permittivity of a microcomposite containing Al 2 O 3 was found to be close to that of the PE matrix value whereas the losses remained quite low. Thermal conductivity of PE was greatly improved: it increased by about 50% irrespective of the nature and size of the fillers. When the filler was nano BN, the breakdown strength was found to be slightly reduced by only 5%. This could be due to the size of the particles or to the high percentage of additives and the interface behavior of the fillers/matrix. Improvement of the PE surface resistance to discharges was achieved, specially with using nano-BN.
Ball-milling of polyethylene and POSS in presence of a micrometric silica phase was used as a means to improve the distribution and dispersion of the POSS in the polymeric matrix. Optical observation has confirmed that this approach is effective in doing so. Using BDS, the polyethylene composite containing POSS 5% wt was found to have a very similar dielectric permittivity as compared to that of neat polyethylene. The further addition to the POSS composite of a micrometric phase consisting of silica 30 wt% was found to perturb somewhat the dielectric responses of the resulting polymer composite.
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