From Laboratory to Industrial Scale: Comparison of Short- and Long-Term Dielectric Performance of Silica-Polypropylene Capacitor Films

In this paper a route from laboratory scale samples to full industrial scale production of biaxially oriented silica-PP nanocomposite capacitor films is for the first time shown and verified. Morphological and dielectric characteristics of laboratory scale produced and by full industrial tenter -process produced nanocomposite and neat-PP reference films are presented and compared. In addition to the short-term characteristics also ageing performance of the industrial films are studied. The results show closely comparative dielectric behavior of the films and thus verifies the successful up-scaling of the used nanocomposite recipe. Although certain amount of impurities and voids were observed in both nanocomposite films the low probability dielectric breakdown strength characteristics were considered promising. Modified trap distribution, decreased conductivity and improved dielectric loss behavior has been verified for the nanocomposite film while areas of further development are also recognized.