Bismuth Trioxide Doped Polyamide 6.6 Nanocomposites for Electrically Insulating Materials

Abstract

Polymer-based insulators have attracted much attention amongst researchers due to their various advantages such as light weightness, lower cost and ease of production. In this study, it is aimed to manufacture lightweight and thin insulator by electrospun composite fibers and to observe the effect of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) on insulating property of polymer-based composite structure. For that purpose, polyamide 6.6 polymer (PA6.6) with high dielectric constant was doped with bismuth trioxide micro particles and it was used for coating polyester spunbonds by electrospinning technique. Morphological properties, thermal behaviours and electrical resistance of coated spunbonds were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showed that Bi2O3 was succesfully adapted into fiber structure and nano-scale PA6.6/Bi2O3 composite fibers were obtained. Thermal behaviours of coated samples were developed by increasing Bi2O3 loading according to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetic analysis (TGA) results. Addition of Bi2O3 caused remarkable increase on electrical resistance of PA6.6 electrospun surfaces. Bi2O3/PA6.6. nanocomposite fibers are promising and good candidates for thin electrically insulating polymer-based structures for micro- or nanodimensional devices.