Assessing thermal and dielectric characteristics of healable, low-field illuminating optoelectronic stretchable material for electrical insulating purposes

An intrinsic self-healing material composed of poly-vinylidene-fluoride (PVDF) based fluoroelastomer with the addition of a small amount of non-ionic fluorinated surfactant was studied as a candidate material for electrical insulating purposes. Structural and thermal properties were analyzed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and simultaneous thermal analysis. Broadband dielectric spectroscopy, volume and surface resistivity, and dielectric strength measurements provided a comprehensive overview of the dielectric properties. The material has a relatively high thermal stability (200 °C), a low dielectric strength of 13 kV/mm, and volume and surface resistivities of 1.07E+09 $\Omega\cdot$ cm and 1.94E+09 $\Omega$, respectively. Due to various polarization effects, relative permittivity values are generally higher and increase with the loss factor at temperatures above 30 °c and at low frequencies (50 Hz). It was also found from high voltage testing that decomposition of the self-healing material was initiated by carbonization of the melt phase generated in the ignition area. Although a self-healing layer arises shortly after the destructive breakdown, the channel recovery activity is not consistent because of the material’s low viscosity. These initial results obtained on a novel dipole-dipole based self-healing material composite can serve as a reference point for further development – to reduce the overall polarity of the system and improve the dielectric properties, while maintaining its selfhealing ability.