Adhesion Improvement of Silicone Rubber Coatings to Ceramics

Contamination of ceramic electrical insulators, as a global concern, can cause failure and damages to power transmission lines, which brings enormous economic loss. To resolve this problem, protective coatings can be used on the surface of ceramic insulators. Silicone rubbers are considered to approach this protection, due to hydrophobicity, thermal and weathering properties. However, because of low surface energy, their adhesion property should be improved. In this work, the effect of TiO2 nanoparticles and silane coupling agent on adhesion strength of silicone coatings to ceramic surfaces have been investigated. The pull-off test method was used to measure the adhesion strength. The results showed a considerable improvement in the adhesion strength of the nanocomposite coating.

Keywords:

Silicone rubber coatings , Adhesion strength , TiO2 nanoparticles , Silane coupling agent , Pull-off method.