Influence of Electron Beam Irradiation on Electrical Insulating Properties of PLA with Soft Resin Added †

Katsuyoshi Shinyama

doi:10.3390/polym10080898

Influence of Electron Beam Irradiation on Electrical Insulating Properties of PLA with Soft Resin Added ^†

Polymers (Basel). 2018 Aug 10;10(8):898. doi: 10.3390/polym10080898.

Author

Katsuyoshi Shinyama¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hachinohe Institute of Technology, 88-1 Ohbiraki, Myo, Hachinohe 031-8501, Japan. shinyama@hi-tech.ac.jp.

Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA), a bioplastic, is a hard resin, and requires softening in order to be used in electric wire sheaths. A soft resin was added to PLA in order to soften it, but this caused the electric breakdown strength (E_B) to decrease. In this study, PLA with soft resin added was irradiated with an electron beam and the influence of the electron beam irradiation on E_B was examined. The irradiation dose was set at 100 kGy. At 25 °C, the E_B of PLA with no soft resin added decreased due to the irradiation. On the other hand, the E_B of PLA with soft resin added showed almost no change due to the irradiation. At 80 °C, the E_B of PLA with no soft resin added decreased due to the irradiation, as was the case at 25 °C. On the other hand, the E_B of PLA with soft resin added increased due to the irradiation.

Keywords: electrical insulating properties; electron beam irradiation; polylactic acid.