Abstract
The purpose of this study is assessing the characteristics of surface aging and recovery of hydrophobicity for silicone rubber which takes a great interest as outdoor insulation recently subjected to the combined stressed of salt fog and AC power. The methods for assessing are contact angle ATR-FRIR, AFM and XRD. In addition salt fog method is adopted as the artificial contamination experiment and AC power is applied 24 hour on and 24 hour off repeatedly for 5 cycles. The results suggest that degraded surface was more rough than virgin but was restored water repellency through the off cycle. It was due to not only the formation of fractal surface but also maintenance of hydrophobic surface by diffusion of low molecular oil. Although surface recovers initial hydropohbicity there are possibilities of decreasing electrical performance due to irreversable changes such as depolymerization of surface and loss of filler particles. This fact is confirmed by surface conductivity measurement showing that the degradation is significant and the recovery of hydrophobicity is imperfect as the energized cycle increases.
