In pursuit of better electrical insulating solid polymers — Present status and future trends

Synthetic polymers have a variety of properties depending on their chemical and physical structures and they have wide applications from electrical insulations to active devices such as piezo- and pyro-electric sensors. Recent development of high-voltage power-transmission networks and thin-film devices has greatly stimulated the progress of electrical insulation technology. Especially in the aspect of materials, the use of plastics in electrical insulation field after World War II brought about a revolutionary change in the performance of apparatuses because of their excellent insulating properties. On the other side, however, this posed problems of degradation under high voltage, heat and so on.