F E A T U R E A R T I C L E

Nanodielectrics Applications—Today
and Tomorrow
Key words: nanodielectrics, nano-sized fillers, epoxy insulation, silicone insulation, applications, rotating
machine insulation, outdoor insulation, GIS spacers, power electronic device insulation

Introduction Edward A. Cherney

A review of the literature on nanotechnology for the electrical
power sector shows considerable hype in the technology, but the
actual usage of nanomaterials in the sector is far below other in-
dustries. As an example, the automotive industry has made great
strides in using nanomaterials because of their lower weight and
higher physical strength. There are several reasons for this, the
obvious one being the quantity of nanodielectrics is relatively
small compared to nanomaterials in other industries. The second
reason is that although there are clear improvements in some di-
electric properties, for example resistance to partial discharges,
the improvements in other properties are not so significant, or
sometimes not even evident. Uniform dispersion of nano-sized
inorganic fillers in nanodielectrics during manufacture is critical
for repeatable electrical properties improvements, and this has
been a problem in some of the reported properties such as break-
down strength. This comes about due to the fact that nanopar-
ticles agglomerate easily because of the high surface energy, and
conventional mixing techniques do not break apart the nanopar-
ticle agglomerates. Another problem is the incompatibility of
hydrophilic nanoparticles with hydrophobic polymers, such as
silicone rubber, which results in poor interfacial interactions.
Nano-sized fillers, and in particular fumed silica, have been
incorporated into polymeric dielectrics since the beginning of
their use, but not for reasons of enhancing electrical properties,
but for enhancing mechanical properties. In silicone rubber,
which today is extensively used in outdoor insulation such as
polymer insulators, surge arresters housings and bushings, about
2 wt% fumed silica is incorporated in silicone compounds as a
reinforcing agent to gain physical strength. The reinforcement
comes from not only the particle shape and size, but for the most
part, reinforcement comes from molecular reactions. However,
nano-sized particles do not always lead to good reinforcement
because of agglomeration, but this tendency can be practically
countered to a certain extent by treating the fillers before mix-
ing, thereby modifying their surface characteristics so they are
molecularly compatible to the host polymer.
Interest in using nanodielectrics is high in HV direct cur-
rent cables, solid insulation in switchgear, rotating machine
Consultant,
7 Woodland Glen Drive,
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
The article discusses the present
day’s applications of nanodielectrics
and outlines some of tomorrow’s ap-
plication and is based on the oral
presentation that was given at the
Workshop on Nanodielectrics held
in conjunction with CEIDP 2012 in
Montreal, Quebec, on October 14,
2012.
insulations, outdoor insulation, energy storage capacitors, and
packaging of power electronic devices. But today, inroads have
only been significant in rotating machine insulations. Because
of the relatively high cost of nano-sized fillers, their use in a
very competitive market like outdoor insulation has been very
limited as the goal has always been to look for ways of reducing
the amount of nano-sized filler and to increase the micron-sized
filler content. So, properties such as their resistance to partial
discharge and to dry-band arcing have normally been obtained
through micron-sized nonreinforcing fillers, such as ground
quartz or alumina trihydrate. Only in combination with micro-
sized fillers are nano-sized fillers a viable way of improving ma-
terials for outdoor insulation.
The article discusses the present day’s applications of nano-
dielectrics and outlines some of tomorrow’s applications.

November/December — Vol. 29, No. 6 0883-7554/12/$31/©2013/IEEE 59

 Today’s Applications
Rotating Machine Insulation
The insulation for rotating machines is one of the very first
applications of nanodielectrics, and the driving thrust for im-
provements in motor insulations has been the use of inverter-fed
drives, which subjects the insulations to repetitive fast-rise-time
pulses. Three types of insulations have been developed with
great improvements in the resistance to partial discharges: first
in random-wound wire enamel; second in form-wound strand
wire enamel; and third in form-wound stator bar insulation or
ground wall insulation. Conventional stress relief grading tapes
fabricated from finely woven polyester glass fabric impregnated
with micron-sized silicon carbide powder have not yet advanced
to nano-sized powders.
Random-Wound Wire Enamel: Typically, low-voltage mo-
tors are random-wound with round wire and insulated with
polyamide-imide insulation or polyester with a polyamide-
imide overcoat, which provides suitable abrasion resistance for
winding and electrical insulation at high operating temperatures.
Multiple layers are applied up to four passes with dipping and
drying of each layer to obtain a total thickness typically of about
50 μm. For improved resistance to partial discharges, the cen-
ter layers contain various nano-sized oxide fillers, with TiO2 as
the most common filler. Normally there is a tradeoff between
resistance to partial discharge, which increases with filler load-
ing, and manufacturing as increased filler loading reduces wire
flexibility, leading to cracks in the enamel; so a loading of about
1 wt% is typical. However, even at this low filler loading the
resistance to partial discharges is greatly improved [1]–[3].
Form-Wound Strand Wire Enamel: The coils for medium-
to high-voltage motors are form-wound by rectangular-shaped
magnet wire, called strands. During the enameling process of
the magnet wire, done to develop the required thickness to meet
the electrical, thermal, and abrasion resistance, the magnet wire
Figure 1. Cross section of magnet wire showing coating layers [4].
60 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
passes through the coating applicator many times depending on
the wire type and its application. This layer-by-layer coating is
oven-cured after each pass and results in multiple polymer-to-
polymer interfaces. For resistance to partial discharges under
pulse-width modulation waveforms, the outer layer contains
nano-sized oxide fillers resulting in a more complex multi-layer
insulation. PD resistance of enameled strands has not been thor-
oughly studied under steep-front pulses, and some of the work
published in a doctoral thesis by Ul Haq [4] is provided in this
section.
In the study of the PD resistance of multiple layer strand
enameling under steep-front pulses, strands were prepared fol-
lowing NEMA MW-1000 specifications [4]. The first three lay-
ers, or base, were made of Pyre-ML® polyimide, on which the
nanofilled insulation layer was applied. Three different types of
nanofillers—namely, TiO2 (54 nm), SiO2 (32 nm), and Al2O3 (62
nm)—were selected for the overcoat layer by adding ~1 wt%
nanofiller to the standard polyimide enamel. The polyimide and
nanofiller were mixed in a blender, vacuum degassed, and ap-
plied to the strands with base enamel and cured in an oven for 2
h at 100°C. The cross section of a strand specimen prepared for
these experimental investigations is shown in Figure 1.
Samples were prepared based on motor coil form-wound ge-
ometry in which rectangular strands are parallel to make a single
turn (Figure 2). Bolted-together plastic sheets on either side of
the rectangular strands were used to ensure close contact be-
tween the strands. The ends of the strands were bent in a circular
fashion, and the air space created by bending was filled with
epoxy to prevent PD in the end turn. Prior to use, the samples
were checked for PD inception at a sensitivity level of 0.5 pC.
Figure 3 shows the waveform from a generator used to evalu-
ate PD resistance of the various strand insulations. A stress of
100 kVp/mm for 1 h was applied to 15 specimens of each insula-
tion type, and after aging, the surface roughness for a surface
area of ~13 μm × 13 μm was measured in a scanning electron
Figure 2. Turn-to-turn sample geometry [4].
microscope using image tool software with features of mean
and standard deviation. The results of these PD erosion tests are
shown in Figure 4, where S1 is the unfilled polyimide and S2,
S3, and S6 are with alumina, S4 with fumed silica, and S5 with
titanium oxide overcoats, with nano-sized fillers. Clearly the ef-
fect of adding ~1 wt% of nanofillers has a marked effect on the
PD resistance of the strand insulations.
It has been suggested that the interfaces between multiple
layers give rise to increased charge carrier trap densities, and
space charge accumulates at these interfaces under the steep
front voltage pulses from pulse-width modulation drives [5]. The
trapped charge results in increased stress between the strands
with reduced turn-to-turn dielectric strength. The reduction in
breakdown voltage of strand insulation with pulse-width modu-
lation aging and space charge accumulation using the technique
of measuring the thermally stimulated depolarization current
Figure 3. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) waveform from a
PWM generator used for testing of strand specimens having a
fundamental frequency of 60 Hz and a switching frequency of
1.25 kHz [4].
November/December — Vol. 29, No. 6 61
Figure 4. Surface roughness for enameled strands (Figure 2)
aged under pulse-width modulation (PWM)-voltage-sourced
converter (VSC) waveform (Figure 3) at a constant stress of 100
kVp/mm (fs = 1.25 kHz for 1 h). Specimen S1 is unfilled. Speci-
mens S2, S3, and S6 are filled with alumina; S4 with fumed sili-
ca; and S5 with titanium oxide overcoats, all ~1 wt% nano-sized
fillers. The bars mark the 5 and 95 percentiles; the extremities
of the hatched box are 25 and 75 percentiles and the center line
represents the average of the data for 15 samples of each insula-
tion type [4].
has been investigated for both unfilled and filled multiple-layer
enameling, which has been previously reported [6].
Using the thermally stimulated depolarization current pro-
tocol described in [4], a reduction of accumulated charge is
observed (Figure 5), which is common to materials with nano-
fillers, which has been reported by various researchers. The re-
duction in the space charge is associated with the conduction
current, which becomes larger for nanostructure materials. The
trapped charges are released more rapidly by nanofilled materi-
als, and thus, the residual charges after long depolarization times
is smaller than those of pure materials [7].
Figure 5. Comparison of stored charge released using thermally
stimulated depolarization current measurements [4].

Figure 6. Comparison of weight loss with laser energy of two-
part silicone rubber samples filled with nano-sized fumed silica
at various wt% loadings [10].
Form-Wound Stator Bar Ground Wall Insulation: Recently
reported results on 13.8 kV form-wound hydro generator bars,
manufactured with an epoxy resin containing a high percent-
age (~26 wt%) of nano-sized silica filler in the global vacuum
pressure impregnation process, are surely impressive [8]. An in-
crease of 15 to 30% in the thermal and mechanical performance
of the ground wall insulation is reported, resulting in thinner
insulation for better cooling and thicker copper for higher power
rating. PD resistance and treeing resistance is significantly im-
proved, giving about 10 times longer life time.
Outdoor Insulation
Extensive studies on the role of fillers, their type, particle size,
and concentration, on the erosion resistance of silicone rubber
subjected to dry-band arcing have been previously conducted,
with much of the work done on micron-sized fillers [9]. Fumed
silica, a nano-sized filler, has been extensively used for physical
reinforcement of silicones. However, because of the interest in
Figure 7. Comparison between micron-sized and nano-sized natural silica filled silicone rubber in
terms of eroded mass loss after inclined plane testing [10].
62 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
physical reinforcement, the amount of filler has been limited to
less than a few wt%.
Simulation of the hot spots that develop under dry-band arc-
ing with an infrared laser is described in [9] and is a technique
that allows weight loss due to heat ablation as an indirect mea-
sure of weight loss due to erosion under dry-band arcing. Weight
loss of silicone rubber samples filled with nano-sized fillers ex-
posed to laser heating is shown in Figure 6 for nano-sized fumed
silica loadings up to 10 wt%. Clearly, weight loss as a function
of filler loading becomes less dependent on laser energy with in-
creasing concentrations of filler, confirming improved resistance
to erosion at higher filler loadings.
The standard ASTM D2303 [11] test was used to obtain
equivalence in terms of resistance to erosion under dry-band
arcing between nano-sized and micron-sized filler loadings in
silicone rubber. In this comparison, natural silica was the filler.
The eroded mass for the tested samples is shown in Figure 7,
in which it is evident that 10 wt% nano-sized silica achieves a
similar performance to 50 wt% of micron-sized filler. Also, the
eroded mass of 10 wt% micron-sized filled silicone samples is
about one order higher compared to 10 wt% nano-sized silica
filled samples.
In comparison to micron-sized filler, nano-sized filler is cost
prohibited for use in outdoor insulation. However, some com-
parisons have been made combining both micron-sized and
nano-sized fillers in silicone rubber.
Ramirez [12] studied the improvement in the resistance to
laser heat ablation (dry-band arcing) of silicone rubber composi-
tions containing both micron-sized and nano-sized fillers using
Triton X-100 surfactant to improve the dispersion of the nano-
sized filler. Figure 8 shows the eroded mass in laser experiments
of silicone rubber formulations containing 40 wt% of micron-
sized silica combined with 2.5 wt% of nano-sized fumed silica,
both noncalcinated and calcinated at 1,273 K and with various
amounts of surfactant. The optimal amount of surfactant for this
composition was 20 pph. Clearly, by combining both micon-
sized and nano-sized fillers, an improvement in the resistance to

Figure 8. Eroded mass of silicone rubber composites with mi-
cron-sized silica (m) and nano-sized fumed silica (nfs) and with
Triton surfactant (T) after exposure to laser ablation (dry-band
arcing). The average eroded mass is represented by the dot; the
25th and 75th percentiles are represented by the horizontal lines
of the bars [13].
heat ablation is obtained, but this comes about only with good
dispersion of the nano-sized filler. Commercial formulations of
high temperature vulcanized silicone rubber containing both mi-
cron-sized and nano-sized silica for injection molding of insula-
tors have been developed [14]. In other work, electrospinning as
a technique to further improve dispersion of nano-sized filler has
shown improvements in the resistance to laser heat ablation of
silicone rubber compositions (Figure 9) [15].
Tomorrow’s Applications
Tomorrow’s applications in the electrical power industry en-
compass a wide spectrum of materials that can be grouped into
four distinct applications that are specific to one or more im-
provements in the dielectric properties, namely, increased stress
applications, higher temperature applications, stress grading ap-
plications, and surface modification applications.
Increased Stress Applications
All practical applications of solid dielectrics are concerned
with electrical treeing that originates from defects within extru-
sions, moldings, or castings, for example, in cast spacers for gas-
insulated equipment, molded bushings, and cast transformers.
It is for this reason that the average stress is kept at a relatively
low level. However, nano-sized fillers improve the resistance of
materials to electrical treeing by acting as barriers that retard the
growth of trees [16]. This property improvement leads the way
to higher stress and a reduction in insulation thickness. This may
November/December — Vol. 29, No. 6 63
also be possible in EPR and XLPE cable insulations, but past
experience with fillers in EPR and foreign impurities in XLPE
have caused many problems with water treeing. For this reason
ultra-clean insulation for cables is used today. The water treeing
mechanism in cable insulation with nano-size fillers still needs
to be studied.
For HVDC cables, charge injection, trapping, and space
charge accumulation plays an important role in the dielectric
strength [17]. Nano-sized fillers tend to increase electrical con-
ductivity, thereby reducing the propensity of materials to trap
charge [18].
High-Temperature Applications
Dielectric materials have relatively low thermal conductivity,
and many applications require not only high dielectric strength
but also high thermal conductivity to remove heat. In industry,
epoxy composites containing ~50 wt% micron-sized silica are
currently used as packaging material for power electronic de-
vices like IGBTs, and although silica has high electrical resistiv-
ity and low dielectric constant, its low thermal conductivity is a
limitation of having high thermal conductivity packaging. Other
fillers such as silicon carbide and zinc oxide have high thermal
conductivity but also have high permittivity, limiting their ap-
plications in dielectric materials. At low volume fractions, na-
no-sized fillers do little to improve the thermal conductivity of
nanodielectrics [10]. In addition, most studies so far have been
limited to studying the thermal conductivity of nanodielectrics,
but thermal expansion and breakdown strength are other impor-
tant properties critical to microelectronic packaging and insula-
tion applications.
Figure 9. Eroded mass of silicone rubber composites with na-
no-sized fumed silica (wt%) for conventionally mixed (CS) and
electrospun (ES) specimens after exposure to laser ablation
(dry-band arcing). The average eroded mass is represented by
the red line in each box, the boundary of the box closest to zero
indicates the 25th percentile, the black line within the box marks
the median value, and the boundary of the box farthest from zero
indicates the 75th percentile [15].
 High thermal conductivity can only be achieved by forming
thermally conductive pathways in the matrix whereby the ther-
mal conductivity of the nanodielectric depends on the type of
filler, number of pathways formed, and the thermal resistance of
the contact points. Whiskers or filaments have been used to form
conductive paths. However, processing of such nanodielectrics
with filler level above the percolation threshold is often very dif-
ficult.
Tomorrow’s high thermal conductivity nanodielectric appli-
cations in power electronic devices and rotating-machine insu-
lations will evolve around mixtures of micron-sized and nano-
sized fillers. Mixtures can improve the packing fraction of fillers,
thereby achieving a low percolation threshold as the number of
conductive pathways increases, resulting in higher thermal con-
ductivity, at lower cost and greater ease of processing [19].
Electric Stress Control Applications
Today, the control of electric stress in medium-voltage cable
accessories and rotating-machine insulation is largely accom-
plished with silicon carbide nonlinear resistive compositions.
Silicon carbide exhibits a modest nonlinear coefficient, but to-
morrow’s applications will be done using zinc oxide filler, which
offers a much greater nonlinear coefficient having the main
advantage of reducing the physical size of the grading device,
higher voltage applications, and new applications such as grad-
ing of HV bushings [20]. Both silicon carbide and zinc oxide
applications are based on percolated materials, and although the
oxides that are used in the zinc oxide grading compositions are
nano-sized, the sintered material is micron-sized.
Analogous to increasing the thermal conductivity of nano-
dielectrics, tomorrow’s electric stress control applications will
combine nano-sized particles with micron-sized zinc oxide fill-
ers to improve the packing fraction, thereby reducing the perco-
lation threshold with increased pathways, resulting in improved
processability.
Functionally Graded Applications
Functionally graded materials are materials that have one or
more properties that are spatial dependent. This property can
be incorporated into epoxy and RTV silicone rubber castings
through the use of several types of fillers, each having a different
dielectric property and mass. Prior to curing, centrifugal force
is one method of separating fillers, yielding a graded permittiv-
ity or thermal conductivity in the cured application. An example
of this is conical epoxy spacers for gas-insulated substations in
which the permittivity can be made to be increase in the radial
direction through centrifugal force by spinning the mold prior
to curing of the epoxy [21]. Alternatively, a separation of fillers
can also be accomplished through dielectrophoretic force, which
separates filler particles of different permittivity when subjected
to an electric field prior to cure [22]. An alignment of filler di-
poles by an electric field can also increase permittivity in a cast
application. Barium titanate is one filler that can be made to have
dipoles aligned to have anisotropic permittivity. So far, micron-
sized fillers have been used to accomplish this unique property
in a dielectric, but mixing nano-sized with micron-sized fillers
can be expected to result in even greater spatial dependency.
64 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine
Nanostructured Dielectric Surface Applications
Nanostructured surfaces improve the performance of many
industrial applications, and outdoor insulation is one that would
benefit by having an easy-to-clean surface. Such surfaces exhibit
a high static contact angle, thereby creating a nonwetting sur-
face. Water droplets simply roll off the surface, sweeping con-
taminants along their paths, thereby improving the performance
of outdoor insulators in polluted and wet environments.
A nanostructured surface can be created in various ways, and
using nano-sized silica in the surface layer of materials is one
common method of doing this. The main problem of such a sur-
face in organic materials is life time, particularly in the outdoors
where natural weathering gradually destroys the nanostructure,
and without a mechanism of replenishing the structure, the en-
hanced performance is short lived.
In silicones, the low molecular weight species that migrates
to the surface and imparts hydrophobicity to silicones destroys
the nanostructured surface within a short time. Figure 10 shows
the reduction in the static contact angle with time after cure of
silicone rubber specimens with a nanostructured surface. As the
low molecular weight species populates the surface, the static
contact angle decreases from superhydrophobic to hydrophobic
states. This is expected to take place with all organic insulating
materials as they all contain processing aids that are mobile.
A nanostructured surface layer can be created in inorganic
dielectrics such as porcelain and glass, and the lifetime of such a
structure in the outdoors needs to be investigated further.
Conclusions
Clearly, the applications of nanodielectrics in the electrical
power industry are beginning to take hold, with more on the ho-
rizon. The applications that are most successful are those that
show improved resistance to partial discharges or corona, for ex-
ample in rotating-machine insulations. Applications that require
high thermal conductivity are needed to further promote the
use of nanodielectrics. Mixtures or hybrids of micron-sized and
nano-sized fillers are of great interest for improved resistance to
dry-band arcing in outdoor insulation applications. Novel nano-
dielectrics that show functionally graded properties have use in
some applications, but their further development is still needed.
Figure 10. Decrease in static contact angle on silicone rubber
specimens with nanostructured surface.
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Edward A. Cherney received the BSc de-
gree in honors physics from the University
of Waterloo, the MSc degree in physics
from McMaster University, and the PhD
degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Waterloo in 1967, 1969, and
1974, respectively. In 1968 he joined the
Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation group
of the Ontario Hydro Research Division in
Toronto, Ontario, where for nearly 20 years he was involved in
many areas of electrical insulation. In 1988 he went into the in-
sulator industry, first with a manufacturer of polymer insulators
and then later with a manufacturer of silicone materials. Since
1998 he has been an international consultant in the outdoor insu-
lation field and an adjunct professor at the University of Water-
loo. He has published extensively on outdoor insulation, holds
several patents, coauthored one book on outdoor insulators, is
involved in several IEEE working groups on insulators, is a reg-
istered engineer in the province of Ontario, is a Whitehead Lec-
turer of the DEIS, is a Fellow of the IEEE, and is editor-in-chief
of the IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine.