Effects of particle size and amount of Al(OH)/sub 3/ on silicone rubber for insulator

Silicone rubber has very excellent chemical stability and hydrophobicity. Silicone rubber has been used very much for housing materials of polymer insulator. Al(OH)/sub 3/ is added to the silicone rubber for improvement of its resistance against surface discharge. Hydrophobicity recovery properties and arc resistance of silicone rubber could be different by the amount and particle size of Al(OH)/sub 3/. In this paper, Al(OH)/sub 3/ with different particle size was added to the silicone rubber during compounding. Silicone rubber was deteriorated by a corona treatment. Hydrophobicity recovery rate after corona treatment and arc resistance of silicone rubber were investigated. Hydrophobicity recovery rate of silicone rubber was evaluated by the measurement of contact angle. Arc resistance was evaluated by measuring weight loss of silicone rubber after arc resistance test. It was observed that the hydrophobicity recovery rate and arc resistance of silicone rubber were different according to different particle size and amount of Al(OH)/sub 3/.