Understanding the Incipient Discharge Activity with Epoxy/MoS₂ Nanocomposites

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In power apparatus, it is essential to have insulating material with high resistance to damages. MoS₂ nanofiller can provide good mechanical, insulating and thermal properties. An attempt has been made to understand the resistance to damage of the material through surface discharge studies and it has been observed that addition of low weight percentage of MoS₂ has high resistance to surface discharges. The results are aided by surface charge accumulation studies. Characteristic variation in dielectric properties of the material indicates that low weight percentage addition of MoS₂ nanofillers shows a reduction in permittivity of the material and has low loss. It was observed that epoxy nanocomposites are resistant to water droplet initiated discharges. Corona inception voltage (CIV) with multiple droplets, droplet near high voltage and ground electrode were measured. It is interesting to note that, irrespective of the number or the position of water droplets and voltage profile, 0.5 wt% MoS₂ added epoxy shows high resistance to discharges. It was also observed that CIV reduces when two droplets placed in electrode gap and when the droplet is placed near the electrodes. Glass transition temperature (T_g) of epoxy/MoS₂ varies with fi ller loading. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) results indicate that the plasma temperature is low for epoxy resin with 0.5 wt% MoS₂.