• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.114-119
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• 2005

We investigated compatibilizing effects of electrical properties such as charge distributions and electrical breakdown in blends of low density polyethylene (LDPE) / polystyrene (PS) with poly [styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene] (SEBS), the triblock copolymer. The blends with $70\;wt\%$ of LDPE and $30\;wt\%$ of PS were prepared through a melt blending in a batch type kneader at a temperature of $220^{\circ}C$ when the SEBS content increased up to $10\;wt\%$. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was investigated for observation of morphology of LDPE / PS blends increasing SEBS contents. The morphological observation showed that addition of SEBS results in the domain size reduction of the dispersed PS phase and a better interfacial adhesion between LDPE and PS phases. Measurements of space charge distributions for blends was carried out with pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) method. It was possible to observe that the amount of charge storage in the LDPE / PS blends decreased wiか increasing of SEBS content. The location of SEBS at a domain interface enables charges to move from one phase to the other via domain interface and results in a indicative decrease in the amount of space charge for the LDPE / PS blends with SEBS. Electrical breakdown strength of these blends was observed. It was found that the maximum breakdown strength of the blend was 51.55 kV/mm. These results were better than 38.38 kV/mm of LDPE used electrical insulator for cables and were caused by crystalinity of blends. Because the crystalinity of blends were lower than LDPE, electrical breakdown strength of LDPE / PS blends is higher than that of LDPE. We evaluated the possibility of these blends for insulating material substituted LDPE.