Investigation of Hydrophobic and Optical properties of HfO2 coating on ceramic insulator

High voltage ceramic (porcelain) insulators of transmission line and power transformers are facing a major problem of contamination. This contamination is location dependent and is from various sources like desert, sea, industry, UV radiations etc. In this paper we report structural, hydrophobic and optical property of hafnium oxide (High -k material) coating on ceramic Insulator. This coating was developed using DC magnetron sputtering technique. The structural property of the coating was investigated using XRD and AFM. The coating exhibits monoclinic phase. The surface roughness (nanometre range) was determined using image software attached with AFM. The wettability of the coating was measured using contact angle meter. The coating was found to be hydrophobic. The band gap of the coating was also calculated from the optical data and was found to be 5.4.This ensures the dielectric property of the coating.