Probing the Epoxy Insulation of Smoothing Reactors With Graphene Ink

• Published in: IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 1177 - 1184
• Main Authors: de Faria, Gabriel Henrique, Araujo, Livia C. dos Passos, Lopes, Gustavo P., Neto, Estacio T. Wanderley, Leyva, Maria Elena, de Queiroz, Alvaro A. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.06.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adhesive strength; Conductivity; Contacts; Direct current; Electrical insulation; Electrical resistance measurement; Electrodes; Fiberglass; Glass fiber reinforced plastics; Glass-epoxy composites; Graphene; Inks; Laminates; Percolation; Polyglycerols; printed circuits; Reactors; Screen printing; Smoothing; Temperature measurement; Thermal stability; Thermogravimetric analysis
• ISSN: 1070-9878; 1558-4135
• DOI: 10.1109/TDEI.2024.3350559

Electrically conductive inks (ECIs) are up to now a growing research field, to create flexible circuits for power engineering. As a result, research into screen printing of conductive electrodes onto fiberglass-epoxy-reinforced laminates (FGERLs) has emerged. In this study, an ECI based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is proposed for screen printing of conductive electrodes on FGERL used in insulation of the high-voltage direct current smoothing reactors (HVDCSRs). The electrically conductive reduced graphene oxide ink (ECrGOI) was fabricated by mixing rGO, hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPGL) as an adhesion promoter, and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as a binding agent. The ECrGOI electrodes exhibited adhesion strength of 3.7 ± 0.3 N/mm2 and conductivity of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1.2.10^{\text {-4}} </tex-math></inline-formula> S/cm at percolation threshold starting at less than 7.5 wt.% of rGO. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicates that ECrGOI exhibited good thermal stability at 400 °C. The attractive electric, thermal, and adhesive properties, combined with the ease of preparation and solution-processing capability, indicate that ECrGOI may have great potential applications in analysis of insulation produced by FGERL used in encapsulation of smoothing reactors.