Recycling zinc oxide varistor blocks for electro-active silicone composites

Recycling route toward electro-active silicone composites has been explored. In this paper, a non-linear composite based on silicone and non-linear fillers has been studied. The dependence of the electric field and current density characteristics on the aggregate content in the polymer matrix has been analyzed. The non-linear composite has been optimized to get a percolation way by determination of rate and shape of filler. The waste of metal oxide varistor during processing could be used as non-linear filler. This opens a way to valorize varistor wastes to make a non-linear synthetic material to manage electrical field in a given area in insulator parts.