Biomass fly ash as nanofiller to improve the dielectric properties of low-density polyethylene for possible high-voltage applications

Atizaz Hussain Akram; Nida Naeem; Asif Hussain Khoja; Faisal Shahzad; Abraiz Khattak; Muhammad Iftikhar; Kashif Imran; Abdulaziz Al-Anazi; Israf Ud Din; Syed Sheraz Daood

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23350

Biomass fly ash as nanofiller to improve the dielectric properties of low-density polyethylene for possible high-voltage applications

Heliyon. 2023 Dec 6;10(1):e23350. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23350. eCollection 2024 Jan 15.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ U.S.-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Sector H-12 Islamabad (44000), Pakistan.
² Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), Islamabad 45650, Pakistan.
³ Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Islamabad, 45650, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P. O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Chemistry Department, College of Science and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 173, Alkharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Institute of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Electrical, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan.

Abstract

Flexible capacitive energy storage applications require polymer nanocomposites with high dielectric properties, which can be accomplished by addition of inorganic nanofillers to the polymer matrix. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), known for its good dielectric characteristics and wide use in electrical insulation have been investigated for the desired applications. However, the improvement of its breakdown strength still continues with the use of various nanomaterials employed as nanofillers. In this study, a waste-derived material known as biomass fly ash (BFA) as a nanofiller to improve the dielectric properties of LDPE has been explored. BFA exhibits versatility in its composition with various metal oxides, making it an attractive choice as a nanofiller. The BFA-LDPE sheets were prepared using a conventional solvent mixing and subsequent hot-pressing process, incorporating BFA loadings ranging from 1 % to 4 wt%. The effects of different BFA loadings were carefully examined, and the synthesized nanocomposites were extensively characterized using various characterization methods, such as XRD, SEM, FTIR, TGA and dielectric constant measurements, to investigate the crystallographic properties, morphology, chemical composition, and thermal stability. Among all the nanocomposites, 4 wt%BFA-LDPE exhibited the highest dielectric constant, with a value of 11.58, compared to simple LDPE that had a dielectric constant of 8.33. This improvement is ascribed to the synergistic effects of different inorganic metal oxides (SiO₂, MgO, and Fe₂O₃) present in BFA. The results showed a significant enhancement in dielectric properties, indicating that the waste-derived BFA can be purposefully applied as an effective nanofiller in the LDPE-based composites with even less than 4% loading for electrical insulating applications in future studies.

Keywords: Biomass fly ash; Composites; Dielectric constant; Low-density polyethylene; Nanofillers.