Effects of N,N-dimethylaniline and trichloroethene on prebreakdown phenomena in liquid and solid N-tridecane

Prebreakdown phenomena in 0.1 M N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA) and 0.1 M trichloroethene (TCE) in n-tridecane have been investigated experimentally in liquid and solid phases in a needle-plane geometry with impulse voltage. Light emission and charge injection from the high-field electrode were measured. Results have been compared with results obtained in neat n-tridecane and in cyclohexane with the same additives. Adding TCE to n-tridecane increases the p re-inception current and decreases the inception voltage for negative and positive polarity. The increase in pre-inception current is probably caused by trap assisted conduction, and may be responsible for the decrease in inception voltage. TCE had no effect on propagation of streamers in n-tridecane. The main effect of DMA in n-tridecane is to enhance the propagation of streamers and electrical trees with positive polarity. This is in line with what has been reported for cyclohexane, and is explained by the low ionization potential of DMA. Charge injection for negative streamers is reduced by the addition of DMA in n-tridecane, while the emitted light is increased. This indicates that some of the energy otherwise used for propagation is emitted as light. A low electronic excitation energy for DMA at 3.8 eV supports this hypothesis. The additives have the same effect on prebreakdown phenomena in solid and liquid phases with positive polarity, and thus the same mechanism is suggested to be responsible for electrical treeing and streamer inception and propagation. The scatter is generally found to increase when going from liquid to solid phase, which is explained by the inhomogeneity in the solid phase. The transition to solid phase with negative polarity typically results in an even larger scatter than for positive polarity. The effect of additives seems to be secondary to the morphology at the point electrode with negative polarity.