Comparisons of Electrical Properties of Polycarbonate and Epoxy Resin under Electrical-Thermal Aging

Polycarbonate (PC) is a thermoplastic material with excellent electrical properties, and it is potential to be used as an eco-friendly alternative to epoxy resin for support insulators. In this study, the long-term stability of PC was investigated by electrical-thermal aging. The dielectric spectroscopy, volume resistivity and dielectric strength of PC before and after aging were tested to evaluate the electrical-thermal aging resistance. As a comparison, epoxy resin was selected as a reference and subjected to the same tests. The test results show that PC has better electrical-thermal aging resistance than epoxy resin. The aged PC has lower dielectric loss, higher volume resistivity and higher breakdown strength than epoxy. This article verifies that PC has sufficient long-term stability to be used as a support insulation material.