Resumo:
The increasing use of electric energy in the last century demands the increasing use of polymeric insulators (IPs) in order to isolate parts of the transmission line with difference of electric potential in relation to the earth or other conductor in addition to avoiding that electrical currents circulate between the isolated parts. Due to the fact that IPs reduce costs in transmission line projects, it is expected that their use will increase significantly in the coming decades. Currently the development of new materials is strongly directed towards the pursuit of sustainable development, characterized by meeting the technological needs of the current power generation without compromising the ability to serve future generations. This way, the use of renewable raw materials becomes an important aspect in the development of IP's for the electric power. In order to meet the demands of the modern world, this work had the objective of synthesizing and characterizing ecologically correct silicone rubber (SiR) formulations for IP. Soybean oil was chosen for the synthesis of green polymer acrylated with HEMA (PVH), since Brazil is the second largest producer of this renewable source oil in the world. By using physicochemical characterization techniques such as gel content, infrared spectrophotometry, thermal analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance, the PVH containing 35% HEMA in its formulation and using 50kGy of gamma rays (PVH 3550) was shown to be more stable and was chosen as the most suitable formulation for the addition to commercial silicone rubbers (SiR) W (SiRW) and B (SiRB). The mixture of PVH in SiR's resulted in more hydrophobic polymer mixtures, and more mechanically and heat resistant than commercial SiR's. Regarding the electrical characterization, the PVH 3550 showed high dielectric strength and resistance to electrical treeing. The results obtained in this work allow to conclude that the formulations developed from PVH have good potential to be used in the manufacture of polymeric insulators for power electric.
