Assessment of dielectric behavior of recycled/virgin high density polyethylene blends

In this work, high density polyethylene (HDPE) incorporation in virgin resin was assessed as to its electrical performance with the use of volumetric resistivity, dielectric strength, and stress tracking measurements. HDPE post-consumer packaging was collected and submitted to a basic process of plastic recovering; washing, grinding, and drying. Formulations containing 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of recycled material in the virgin resin were reprocessed by extrusion and injection molding with stabilization. Dielectric strength test results were analyzed by the statistical distribution of Weibull, and the maximum likelihood method. The degree of crystallinity was measured by X-ray diffraction. Atomic absorption spectroscopy was also done to identify metallic residue present in the samples. From the results analyzed, it can be concluded that the HDPE derived from post-consumer packaging can be considered in electrical insulation systems for low voltage (up to 600 V) containing as much as 75% incorporated virgin resin. Index Terms--Recycling, post-consumer, polyethylene, dielectric properties, dielectric strength, volumetric resistivity, stress tracking.