The Effect of Water Absorption on the Dielectric Response of Calcined Zirconia-based Polyethylene Nanocomposites

Polymer nanocomposites have become one of the attractive research areas in exploring new dielectric materials. This is due to their potential dielectric property enhancements as a consequence of nanostructuration. However, the degradation of the dielectric performance of nanocomposites has also been reported and this is can be related to the presence of water within the materials. The main objective of the current work was to investigate the effects of water absorption on the mass change and dielectric response of polyethylene (PE) nanocomposites containing uncalcined and calcined zirconia (ZrO2) nanofillers. The results show that nanocomposites containing uncalcined ZrO2 exhibited a marginal increase in the real permittivity after water immersion. Under similar water immersion periods, nanocomposites containing calcined ZrO2 also demonstrated a marginal increase in the real permittivity. Factors influencing the dielectric response of the nanocomposites after ZrO2 calcination and water immersion are discussed.