Improvement of insulation effectiveness of natural rubber by adding hydroxyl-functionalized barium titanate nanoparticles

Natural rubber (NR) products are being applied in many protective tools for life-line applications, including insulating boots, blankets, sleeves, insulating gloves, or flexible coverings. Due to the inherent risk of such works it is imperative ensuring the quality of the safety products involved. The dielectric properties of NR-based products rely heavily on the compounding formulation and manufacturing processes involved. Considerable efforts are being applied to improve the dielectric performance of NR formulations to ensure that maintenance personnel work in the safer and most comfortable conditions. This work studies the addition of different weight fractions of surface-modified BaTiO3-OH nanoparticles to NR formulations to enhance dielectric properties such as breakdown strength and leakage current. The results presented in this work show that the addition of a low weight fraction of surface-modified BaTiO3-OH nanofillers (< 1 wt.%) enhances the surface and volume resistivity, crystallinity, breakdown strength under ac conditions and lowers the leakage current under dc stress.